The Wall Street Journal reports Amazon.com has deals with six universities and has invited major publishing organizations in advance of the expected launch of the Kindle DX, an updated, enlarged version of its Kindle designed for reading newspapers and textbooks.A day after reports surfaced May 4 that online retail giant Amazon.com was
planning a version of its Kindle e-book reader device meant for reading larger
publications like newspapers, the Wall Street Journal reports that "people familiar
with the matter" say Amazon.com has made deals with several universities
to bring the Kindle to college campuses. The paper also reported Amazon.com has
been reaching out to large publishers, including Time Warner's Time magazine division
and The New York Times.
The university agreement concerns six universities in total, including Yale,
Pace and Arizona State,
the paper reported. Lev Gonick, CIO at Cleveland's
Case Western Reserve
University, told the Journal that
students would have access to large-screen versions of the Kindle, called the
Kindle DX, preloaded with textbooks for chemistry and computer science.
Pace will be the site of Amazon.com's press conference on May 6, where The New
York Times' chairman and publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and the president of
Case Western Reserve
University, Barbara Snyder, will
join Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos for an
announcement that is widely believed to serve as a launch for the Kindle DX.
Gonick told the paper the updated Kindle would offer an "experimental"
Web browser with more functionality than the current Kindle. The current model,
the Kindle 2, has a 6-inch-diagonal electronic display and a lackluster Web
browser. On May 4, technology blog Engadget posted cameraphone photos
of what appeared to be the Kindle DX.
The DX's display will be 9.7 inches diagonally and offer features such as
annotation functionality and an integrated PDF reader, according to the site.
Engadget also reported that subscriptions to The New York Times would cost
$9.95 per month. Amazon.com currently charges $13.99 for a subscription to the
Times. In January, the Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, said the paper currently
makes a "modest amount of money" selling the Kindle version of the
paper to users, but not enough customers are yet paying for an online or
downloadable version.
The Kindle 2 uses an electronic paper display manufactured by E Ink and
downloads content over Amazon.com's Whispernet network. It carries a retail
price of $359. In March, the company launched an application, Kindle for
iPhone, which allows owners of the Apple smartphone to access Kindle content on
their iPhones.
Amazon.com's push to expand its capacity beyond books may help it gain traction
with newspaper readers. Although Amazon.com currently offers subscriptions to
dozens of newspapers, subscription sales have reportedly been sluggish.
Currently subscriptions to newspapers from Amazon.com cost between $5.99 and
$14.99 per month, magazines cost between $1.25 and $3.49 per month, and blogs cost
between $0.99 and $1.99 per month.
