Clues to new Kindle capabilities at end of year

StrategyEye has been looking at Amazon's Lab126 job ads and reports that Amazon may be planning to improve the Kindle web browser, as they posted an ad for an engineer to design new features on an "innovative embedded web browser."

The article reports fears that Kindle customers who are newspaper subscribers could just go to a newspaper website for free (specifically mentioning the NY Times) and then cancel their newspaper subscriptions.  It's not clear to me that StrategyEye knows that Amazon Users can already web to the NY Times online.

We can already read the NY Times online in its full-text format, which I have a link to in the downloadable file of mobile-device-optimized websites described and available at http://bit.ly/mobiweb.

We can also go to the regular website but that would be masochistic as that is very slow.  The text-optimized NY Times though is fully available.

Wireless use drains e-readers quite a bit, but a full-throttle web-browser would drain it very quickly.

StrategyEye reports that some believe the planned improvements are "part of a damage control exercise in prepararation for next month's release of the iPad."

  But in no way would a new version be ready by that time anyway, unless one is thinking about e-readers that are rushed to market and unreliable.
  There ARE obviously plans for a touchscreen to be ready by the end of the year and almost surely some kind of color screen with it, from all that I read (rumors are heavy about both Touchco which Amazon now owns and Mirasol, the latter dropping hints but also trying to entice all e-reader makers with their impressive technology although the colors are somewhat muted and there may be less contrast).
  EInk/PVI has stated that they could also have color ready by the end of the year also.
  So, I think any web browser improvements would be slated for a new Kindle near the end of the year.

  In the meantime it would be very good if they could improve the current model's web browsing so that it's faster and handles 'https' links. But, as StrategyEye worries, a faster browser will eat up more bandwidth, especially when people use a much faster browser much more and then 24/7 web browsing would likely be put on tiered pricing.

  StrategyEye writes that "A better browser would open up the internet to Kindle users and could put serious strain on the AT&T network."  The Kindle is already open to the Internet and is the only e-reader that gives (free) cellular wireless for this -- the other e-readers confine customers' web access to their own stores.

  And there they note the possibility that "Kindle customers could potentially cancel their subscriptions to publications such as the New York Times and access the paper's website for free."
  Certainly, with the iPad, the publishers should worry about that even more, as they could access the regular web pages of the NY Times as opposed to accessing, more practically and slowly, the mobile-unit optimized text pages of the NYT.

I've always been patient with the slow Kindle browser because it's free and I need that kind of access outside only for quick lookups.  I imagine that any decent speed capabilities will bring tiered-browsing plans, so I'm not over-excited about this.

Kindle DX - Yesterday's reports and possibilities

Thursday night, I wrote two entries.

  The early evening story included that the Kindle DX is not shipping for 4-6 weeks.  I opined then that the DX-International might be released in a few weeks -- the new 'batch.'

  Not long after midnight, I added an entry about PVI launching a plastic e-ink screen in the Spring and that it was 9.7" and I wrote

'...it's thought that there's a likelihood Amazon could be involved already...This will be 9.7-inches so would be useable in a new Kindle DX...PVI "refused to disclose" whether or not they're working with a specific partner on a new version of the system. '

I was of course hinting, as did the article I referenced at FT, that Amazon could be coming out in the Spring (in this case it would be earlier Spring) with the plastic screen on the new DX, which would not be too far from Plastic Logic's release of its own, also mentioned in the article.

Timing is tough.  If PVI were launching in the Spring, would they do it this way, favoring one of its many vendors for the first edition?  While I wondered about this, I thought it unfeasible for PVI to so openly appear to have favored one of its client companies to that extent.  Nevertheless, it remained a possibility, so I mentioned it, though my writing was a bit subtle about that.

But the thing that I now remember being mystified about in October comes to the fore.  When Amazon went international with the Kindle 2, I didn't understand why they didn't do this with the DX as well -- unless they needed to get rid of the older inventory before doing an international release, but they could have sold those for a bit less less as they did the domestic Kindle 2 while they still had them.  So that continued to not make much sense, unless PVI and eInk Co could not produce enough DX's at that time for the big splash that International release was.

Now I wonder if it doesn't make more sense that they did not want to do two new releases of the DX too close together as that would have a very bad effect.

Is that why the DX International was delayed?  Will we see a plastic-screen version of the DX at the same time?  At this point, I think it's a good possibility -- at the risk of our being disappointed if they release only a DX International next :-)

Brief: PVI (eInk) develops plastic screen, for Spring 2010

E-Ink plastic screen coming.  Financial Time's Peter Marsh in London reports today that Prime View International (PVI), who bought eInk, plans to launch a lightweight plastic screen in Spring 2010, available to all its customers, and it's thought that there's a likelihood Amazon could be involved already.
  This will be 9.7-inches so would be useable in a new Kindle DX and most important for the educational market due to the higher probability of dropping a unit in that environment.  It would be more competitive with the coming Plastic Logic 'Que' also.

PVI "refused to disclose" whether or not they're working with a specific partner on a new version of the system.  A 9.7" screen based on plastic would likely "...weigh about 330g, about a third less than the 500g or so of a product based on a glass screen."
  If that link doesn't present the full story, here's an alternate one.

Inside the Kindle 2 - what is its "true cost"?

Businessweek's Arik_Hesseldahl reports on what was uncovered during the disassembling of a Kindle 2.

Points from the article for those curious about the details.
1. Research firm iSuppli tears one apart to determine the cost of its components.
    Getting straight to the point, they estimate the cost of building at $185.49, or 52% of its retail price.
2. Hesseldahl makes an assessment of its unique identification and branding in a short time:

"...Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle has come to personify the e-reader in much the same way Apple's (AAPL) iPod brand of music player is often used generically to mean an MP3 player."

3. iSuppli identifies the suppliers and estimates the the cost of the components, to arrive at a rough estimate of the profit margin for each unit.
3. They believe the most costly component is its display (surprise!) made by E Ink.
4. The display is integrated into the final module by Taiwan's Prime View International (PVI).
    (This leads to the question of quality control issues -- E Ink's? or PVI's ?)
5. iSuppli's supervising analyst, Andrew Rasseiler, estimates the cost of the E Ink display at $60 "or about 42% of the cost of materials"
6. "The screen uses tiny, round microcapsules that change to black, white, or gray to represent text or images as needed."  When the unit was disassembled, the last image remained on the screen, as no power is needed to keep it there, requiring less battery power/drain.
7. Novatel Wireless makes the basic wireless module that costs $39.50.
8. Since the Kindle 1 had wireless components right on the motherboard instead of in a separate module as the Kindle 2 has, that was a more complicated and costly design, Rassweiler says.
9. Inside the wireless module are Qualcomm chips, which cost $13.18.
10. The main applications chip is from Freescale Semiconductor (spun off from Motorola) at a cost of $8.64.
11. Other:  memory chips, Samsung;  power mgmt chips, TI;   and 3 other companies provided some parts.

So we've a total estimated cost of materials.  Then there is of course the additional cost of its main feature, wireless access and the pre-paid use of Sprint's EV-DO cell phone network which usually costs cell phone users at least $30/month for limited use, with tiered levels (above) available.  At this point, Kindle users can access the entire Net 24/7, even if it is far from ideal in execution.

Add the cost of assembling, sw/hw development, distribution, management, customer support, etc.  Jeff Bezos has mentioned a few times that the profit margin is low on the unit, which is likely a reason they don't distribute it through stores, but they appear to have some faith in its more addictive powers, allowing customers to use it for 30 days and to return it if just uninterested in keeping it.  I've not heard of anyone having problems getting the refunds.

ADDED 4/27/09: Earlier photos of the inside of the Kindle 2 - page 1, page 2.  Note a commenter's note that what some thought was a spot for an SD card is instead a SIM connecter, with less pins than an SD connector.