Jun 05
Jun 05
Amazon Resurrects The Kindle DX, That Most Awkward Cousin Of A Device Family On The Way Out
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon has made official the return of a device many thought was bound for the e-reader graveyard, the Kindle DX. The DX is Amazon’s big-screen reader, with a 9.7-inch e-ink display and a full keyboard at the bottom. It’s almost comically oversized compared to the more popular and current e-reader models, which include the Kobo Aura HD and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, and the technology within is now almost three years old.
Dedicated e-readers as a category seem to be suffering at the hands of ever-cheaper tablets. So why did Amazon bring back the odd duck out in a family of weird waterfowl? Amazon isn’t saying, at least not in any great detail. The company says that it’s “excited to offer customers this option” in an official statement we received when we contacted them about bringing the mammoth reader back (and said the same to The Verge), but that’s about as deep as they go in discussing both the absence and the return. We’ve reached out to see if they can provide more context.
Kindle VP Jay Marine did say back in October that Amazon was likely through with the DX, though he did specify that it wouldn’t abandon it. The DX was originally positioned as an education-market-oriented device and essentially offered a way to better present textbook content. I actually bought one, but not for education purposes; I hoped that the larger screen would provide a better reading experience for long-form articles from publications like The Atlantic.
Amazon has never broken out sales numbers for specific models of Kindle, or even for the Kindle itself. But the lumbering DX, with its $379 price tag (which has since been reduced to $299, the same price as the 32 GB Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch tablet), it likely never had more than a small cult following. The DX returning to the store might be tied to Amazon’s efforts with WhisperCast, which offers easy provisioning for educational institutions and organizations, because at this price, who else but those types of groups would buy it?
Oct 15
The Kindle DX never quite took off the way Amazon was intending. While a 10-inch e-reader certainly sounded good in theory — especially for the broadsheet addicts out there — it was too unwieldy and expensive for mass market appeal. While Amazon has continued to sell the device, and recently at a steep discount, it has been left out of every upgrade cycle since mid-2010. Now, after just three short years, it appears that Amazon has quietly killed the super-sized line. The retailer has finally removed the DX from its Kindle carousel and it’s no longer listed as available direct from the company. Though, you can still pick one up from third-party sellers. We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment and will update if and when we hear back.
Kindle DX no longer available from Amazon, potentially discontinued originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Gizmodo | 
The eBook Reader, Amazon | Email this | Comments
Oct 15
Amazon Kindle DX quietly killed off
Posted in: Today's Chili
Back in August, Amazon was clearing out some of its Kindle tablets at significantly reduced prices. One of the Kindle tablets that saw a price cut was the Kindle DX. That tablet was available for 29% off making a discount of about $110 at the time.
Now that Amazon has unveiled its new Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite devices, it seems no place was left for the Kindle DX. The significant discount on the Kindle DX was an effort to remove stocks ahead of the new products launching and Amazon is no longer selling the DX directly to customers. If you’ve have been wanting one of the larger Kindle DX readers, you can still get it used via third-party merchants on Amazon.
The indication that the DX is being removed from the Kindle line comes in the fact that there’s no mention of when the device will be back in stock. The tablet has also reportedly been removed from the Kindle family box and the comparison tables of different Kindle models on Amazon. Taken together that indicates that the DX has, in fact, been discontinued rather than simply being out of stock.
The chance of a new model of similar size packing its own little keyboard coming aren’t great. The market has shifted significantly towards tablets, and Amazon has done impressively well with its Kindle Fire line of tablets so far.
[viaThe eBook Reader]
Amazon Kindle DX quietly killed off is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Oct 15
The Kindle DX (artist’s rendition shown here), Amazon’s 10-inch offering to the academic set, has been discontinued on the site and is only available from used dealers. Although there has been no official word concerning the DX, the product was reduced from $379 to $299 and the DX is currently out of stock on Amazon.
Amazon designed the 9.7-inch reader as a way to display full pages of content at once and allow readers to see images and text a bit more easily. Launched in 2009, the DX appeared just as readers were thinking about the differences between tablets and e-readers and magazine and newspaper publishers were excited to drop print and move into the ereaders. You’ll recall this is the same period that Hearst media tried and failed to launch the color Skiff e-reader for magazines.
The 6-inch form factor for e-readers seems like the way to go and while I don’t doubt Amazon will release a bigger reader at some point, it seems this heavy, hearty e-reader has gone the way of the great Dinornis novaezelandiae of New Zealand.
Oct 15
Amazon has been busily updating its Kindle lineup over the past few years, and now its flagship Fires and Paperwhite have media consumption covered. Along the way the massive Kindle DX has been ignored—and now it seems the device is being discontinued. More »
Oct 15
You can more or less say that the Amazon Kindle DX is a dying breed, considering this device is no longer listed as in stock by its retailer Amazon, where it is available only to those who do not mind purchasing a tablet that is listed under the “used device” category. Heck, that means we will not be able to check out the refurbished units anymore. Perhaps the discontinuation of the Kindle DX is something natural, considering how the e-reader was introduced to the masses in 2009 – where 3 years is a long time in the world of consumer electronics. Sure, it received and update in the year that followed, but was more or less pushed to the sidelines since then. A price cut for the Amazon Kindle DX was introduced just a few weeks ago, and that’s that – it has been a decent run basically, but there is no room for sentiment when it comes to technology.
The Amazon Kindle DX does hold the distinction of being Amazon’s first large-screen model with a 9.7” display, and Amazon had hopes for the Kindle DX to end up in the hands of students worldwide as a textbook platform, where efforts to spearhead that vision included having several major US universities run pilot programs that saw the use of the Kindle DX in classrooms. Still, it did not take off as expected, so here we are at the end of the road. Still, Amazon has their fingers dipped in the tablet/e-reader market with their recent slew of Kindle releases like the Kindle Fire HD amongst others.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Amazon rumored to be interested in acquiring Texas Instruments’ mobile chip division, Best Buy to match the prices of online retailers this holiday season to prevent “showrooming”,
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.