Hasta La Gadget!

The e-reader price wars is on. Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle e-book reader to $190 from $260 earlier. Amazon’s move comes in response to Barnes & Noble’s price cut on the Nook earlier Monday.

The Kindle will still be slightly more expensive than the basic version of the Nook. A Wi-Fi only version of the Nook is now available for $150, while a 3G model will cost $200.

With the latest round of price wars, the distinction between e-readers and tablets is also becoming clear. Tablets and E Ink-based reading devices are likely to co-exist by targeting different groups of consumers based on their purchasing power, the extent of interactivity they need and their reading patterns.

That means two sets of products: Tablets with color displays and lots of features that cost $400 or more, and inexpensive black-and-white E Ink-powered e-readers that will soon be available for $150 or less.

Despite the launch of tablets such as Apple’s iPad, e-book readers continue to be popular among consumers. About seven million e-readers will be sold this year, estimates Forrester. A recent poll by consumer electronics search website Retrevo showed 45 percent of casual readers–those who read one book every few months–say they plan to buy an iPad now instead of an e-reader. But among avid readers–those who read more than five books a month–only 14 percent say they will go for an iPad over an e-reader.

“In other words Apple will still attract many e-reader buyers but Kindle owners might buy more books,” says Retrevo in its blog post. The web site polled 1000 people through an independent panel.

That’s good news for Amazon and Barnes & Noble who are betting on sales of more digital books. E-readers such as Kindle and Nook will help them in that goal.

See Also:

• $150 Kobo eReader: The Real Kindle Killer?
• Acer Debuts New E-Reader, Android Phone
• Why E-Books Look So Ugly

Photo: Amazon’s first generation Kindle (Brian Vallelunga/Flickr)

Oh, snap! Merely hours after Barnes & Noble came out swinging with a $149 WiFi-only version of its Nook and a price-reduced $199 3G Nook, along comes Amazon to rip a massive hole in B&N’s billowing sails. As of this very moment, the $259 Kindle 2 — complete with global 3G and the 6-ink E Ink display you’ve come to know and love (or hate) — is now the $189 Kindle 2. Oh, and there’s also free 2-day shipping. Looks like the undercutter just got undercut, huh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Amazon’s Kindle conveniently falls to $189, Nook looks stunned and bitter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon has finally stopped teasing and let the 2.5 Kindle firmware update loose for all and sundry. It had become available as a download for international users a few days ago, and as of today their American counterparts can partake in the same manual update. But only if they wish to be proactive. All Kindles that have their wireless connections turned on will be getting the drop over the next few weeks. So what’s all the fuss about? In version 2.5, you’ll be able to organize books into collections (or folders as most of us call them), share favored passages via Twitter and Facebook, zoom and pan around PDFs, lock down your Kindle with a password, and enjoy the benefits of two added large font sizes and improved sharpness all around. If that sounds too appealing to wait for, hit the source link to find the manual download and install instructions.

[Thanks, Jason]

Kindle 2.5 firmware now available for keepsies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like you should count yourself lucky if you were among the first few to get the Kindle 2.5 firmware update — Amazon has now announced that it’s pushing back the update for everyone else in order to make some “small adjustments” based on user feedback. Exactly what those adjustments are isn’t clear, and Amazon isn’t offering a new date for the updated update either, with it only going so far as to say that will be rolling out to “more users over the coming weeks.” As far as we can tell, however, there isn’t actually anything wrong with the 2.5 update that did roll out to some users, so go on enjoying your social networking and PDF zooming — if you can.

Kindle 2.5 update pushed back a few weeks for some ‘small adjustments’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t need to sit down, we’re not about to hit you with any shocking news, but a recent BookExpo America convention has given publishers the chance to air out their laundry list of complaints. Seriously, do these guys ever have anything positive to say? Now they’ve managed to pinpoint a flaw in the Kindle and iPad’s resounding success, identifying the two ebook reading platforms as closed, and expressing a yearning for a universal and open format that all books can be published and consumed on. Of course, they wouldn’t be publishers if they didn’t also lust after robust DRM measures, which might explain why they’re not roundly supporting the readily available EPUB format. It has DRM options, but perhaps they’re not gnarly enough for the dudes responsible for bringing us the psychological horror of the Twilight series. We still don’t like the suggestion that the people, Amazon primarily, who popularized this market should just open it up out of the goodness of their own hearts — maybe we would if publishers ever showed themselves capable of doing similarly noble things.

Ebook publishers seek universal format, lament Apple and Amazon’s closed ecosystems originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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