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This post was published 1 year 10 months 22 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.
It is easy to dismiss the improved contrast on the Kindle DX to be a minor improvement for what is an essentially failed product. It has already alienated it’s target audience, academia, and made no progress at bringing the features they had most requested (except for better organization). With no touch screen, no ability to mark up texts directly, and slow and clumsy searching, college test release after college test release found the same thing…the Kindle DX, and really any ebook reader, was just not going to replace most text books for serious studying. Better contrast and a graphite colored case is not going to change that.
However, a very interesting report on the Financial Times puts the DX upgrade in a new light, or dare I say it, gives it a sharper focus….and makes me think about where Amazon may be headed with this.
It appears that the improved contrast is due to the fact that the DX is implementing E Ink’s second generation screen technology, called Pearl. Pearl improves the contrast ration on an E Ink screen from 6:1 to 10:1 at least, radically improving the reading experience. The page is whiter, the lettering sharper and darker. However, better reading is NOT why Kindle is rolling the new tech out right now.
The Financial Times says this about it…
“We are in the process of building a colour display – our colour display is essentially a monochrome display with a colour filter on top,” Sri Peruvemba, head of E Ink global sales, told me.
This filter reduces the light going into the display, affecting the contrast, which is particularly noticeable on black and white text.
“We had to change the fundamental display so that we had double the contrast. Then, when we put the colour filter on top, the black and white text should look at least as good as the current product – so that’s what drove us to do this.”
E Ink has adjusted the chemistry of its black and white pigments and optimized the display to produce contrast ratios that can be better than the 50 per cent improvement claimed for the DX.
So the Pearl tech is required in order to evolve the DX into a color device. Amazon is using this upgrade as both an test and an evolutionary step. I also found the price cut to be very interesting.
Perhaps what Amazon is going to do, rather then release a Kindle 3 this fall with color, is to change the Kindle DX to a Kindle Color. Drop the whole university venture which has failed anyway, and repurpose the model.
Big screen, color, light weight, more attractive price. Perhaps THIS is what they are going to put on the front lines against the iPad, and leave the Kindle (or it’s successor) for now to continue to harvest the still lucrative black and white Ebook Reader market. Then down the line, upgrade the Kindle to color when the tech is cheaper.
Consider this set up for the holiday season…
- The Kindle 2, perhaps with some more minor upgrades, price dropped further to $150 or $100.
- Maybe a Kindle 3, for $250 or so with a touch screen and Pearl tech in black and white.
- The Kindle Color (formerly the DX), large screen, more readable, color Ebook reader, $379 (or likely less with another price drop).
Add in the popularity of the Amazon ebook library, and free wireless on both…THAT may be a strategy that will cut some ice against the iPad come Christmas, and bury the Nook and other pretenders.
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