Dynamite the Levees: Amazon’s Triple Threat to Undercut the Consumer Biz

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduces a new tablet called the Amazon Fire at an Amazon.com event in New York, NY on Wednesday Sept. 28, 2011. Photo: Victor J. Blue/ Wired.com

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduces a new tablet called the Amazon Fire at an Amazon.com event in New York, NY on Wednesday Sept. 28, 2011. Photo: Victor J. Blue/ Wired.com

NEW YORK — The advantage traditional paper-based media has always had over electronic media is that the consumer doesn’t have to bear the cost of the technology up front. If you buy a book or a magazine, the technology that enables its production and transmission is already built in.

The cost of the device can turn an electronic media gadget into a prestige device, like Apple’s iPod or iPad. But it’s nevertheless a hurdle for customers. $500 for an iPad or $400 for the first-generation Kindle is a lot of cash to drop for folks who want to read. It’s also a levee bottling up a torrent of content that can be sold and delivered over those devices.

With Amazon’s new $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G, and $199 Kindle Fire, Amazon dynamites that levee. The devices aren’t free, but they’re so much cheaper than comparable products on the market that they will likely sell millions of copies and many more millions of books, television shows, movies, music and apps.

The digital divide between haves and have-nots just potentially got a lot smaller.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the four new devices at a New York press conference on Wednesday morning. He seemed delighted to begin with the surprise new Kindles, and slow-play the long-awaited tablet — which dropped at a price much lower than most analysts earlier this week had guessed.

“Four years ago, we set out to improve upon the book,” Bezos said. The first iteration of the Kindle was greeted with skepticism, Bezos says, even from thoughtful, well-meaning people, who noted that Amazon had to create demand not only for the device, but for the content that fills the device. Unlike Apple — which benefited from Napster and CD-ripping to popularize MP3s — Amazon had to make e-books popular, too.

“Kindle is an end-to-end service,” Bezos said. Amazon not only sells books, but delivers them directly to users’ devices and stores them free of charge in the cloud. And it delivers and syncs those books anywhere, not only to Amazon’s own devices, but to software running on computers and phones and tablets, including some of Amazon’s competitors.

Kindle Touch is a new e-Ink device with an infrared touch display, similar to some of the technology used by Barnes & Noble, Sony or Kobo. But it costs a lot less: just $99 for the basic model with Wi-Fi, or $149 for the Kindle Touch 3G with free unlimited mobile connectivity. (Kudos to Amazon for keeping unlimited global mobile alive!)

The Kindle Touch also features an in-depth search index called X-Ray. Books include a built-in index — really a kind of mini-encyclopedic side file — that keys in to notable phrases and characters in the book. It’s backed up by Amazon subsidiary Shelfari, but it doesn’t live within the cloud: it’s stored locally and paired with the e-book file itself.

Don’t worry if you love the old Kindle and don’t care about touchscreens. “We have many customers who expressly tell us they don’t want touch,” Bezos says. So Amazon is also delivering a brand new Kindle — lighter, thinner, with faster guts inside — without a touchscreen, but a five-way navigator and page-turn buttons for $79. This new Kindle (Kindle 4?) is shipping today. Amazon is also pairing this Kindle’s Special Offers ads with Amazon Local, for local deals, not just coupons for stuff to buy at Amazon.com.

The Kindle Fire tablet, though, is the star of this show, because it leverages everything Amazon offers, from its multimedia sales to Amazon Prime streaming video service and free two-day shipping and Amazon’s industry-standard cloud infrastructure.

Quick hardware specs for the Kindle Fire: 14.6 ounces, dual-core processor, 7″ multi-touch IPS (i.e. infrared) LCD screen. What it’s missing: camera, GPS, 3G. It also has only 8 gigabytes of storage. But that’s a moot point: It’s a cloud-driven tablet.

Bezos took the opportunity to take a shot at Apple, pointing out the benefits of Amazon’s instant, wireless WhisperSync against a photograph of Apple’s iconic USB cable. WhisperSync now works just like Amazon books (or Netflix’s ability to hold your place); watch a video on the Kindle Fire, and you can pick it up at the same place on your Amazon VOD-enabled TV or set-top box.

Video isn’t the only draw of Kindle Fire over the mainstream e-readers. It also has Silk, a web browser leveraged by Amazon’s EC2 cloud processing power. Bezos calls it “a split browser.” It promises to use that extra computation power to do all of the DNS, TCP/IP, interactions, etc., on the back-end to make Silk much, much faster than competing mobile browsers. It also stores, reformats and compresses common instances of over-sized media designed for the desktop for faster mobile delivery. An Amazon engineer calls it “a limitless cache” to optimize the last-mile delivery between the web and the tablet.

And yes: Silk runs Flash.

Amazon’s unveiled a family of devices that stays true to its mission of bringing digital reading and media devices to as many people as possible. Now we have to see just how this market can grow.

Playing With Fire: Amazon Launches $200 Tablet, Slashes Kindle Prices

One year ago, almost to the day, Jeff Bezos gave me the reason why people should carry around a Kindle in the age of the iPad. No Angry Birds.

“The number one app for the iPad when I checked a couple of days ago was called Angry Birds — a game where you throw birds at pigs and they blow up,” Bezos told me in September 2010. “The number one thing on the Kindle is Stieg Larsson. It’s a different audience. We’re designing for people who want to read.”

Today at a New York City press event Amazon is releasing a $199 color 7-inch tablet device called Fire. It plays Angry Birds.
“Nobody is expecting that we’re coming out with a $79 Kindle!” –Jeff Bezos

No, Amazon is not giving up on people who mainly want to read. Bezos also unveiled a new e-book reader called the Kindle Touch. It uses the same high-density “pearl” e-ink as the previous Kindle, but you can swipe your finger on the page to turn the screen, type on an on-screen keyboard that otherwise slumbers while you snuggle in with Jennifer Egan or Neal Stephenson. It costs $149 with Amazon Whispernet mobile connectivity and only $99 for the Wi-Fi version. They ship on Nov. 21.

There’s also a new Kindle where you turn pages with the traditional side buttons. It’s slimmer and lighter — under six ounces — because there’s no physical keyboard. It costs only $79, and is available now. Bezos can’t contain his excitement at this. “At $79, it’s really going to blow people away,” Bezos told me in Seattle last week when he shared a glimpse of his new line of devices. “Nobody is expecting that we’re coming out with a $79 Kindle!”

All the new e-ink Kindles have an innovative feature called X-Ray. When you download a book on an e-ink Kindle you automatically receive a second file with information about the characters and settings of the book. The sources include Wikipedia and an Amazon-owned company book-related social service called Shelfari. It’s a welcome means to quickly figure out whether an unfamiliar character had appeared a few chapters earlier.



But Fire is the hottest of the bunch, because it marks Amazon’s media assault on the sizzling category of tablet computing. Ever since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, a slew of competitors ranging from HP to Samsung have tried to come up with their own tablets. It’s been like the Charge of the Light Brigade as one after another get sent out to the slaughter. None of them are as good as the iPad and they generally cost as much or more.

With a groundbreakingly cheap, small, even simpler tablet — and a powerful inventory of books, movies, television shows and digital tunes to fire up — Amazon is a more formidable foe. Its goal is not selling hardware, but selling the media that runs on the device. Amazon, he says, now has a $15 billion media business — most recently it inked a deal with Fox for movies and television shows. “It’s not just books,” he says. “It’s music, games, software, it’s a bunch of different things.” Now it has a platform to play those songs, games, and apps.

Bezos sees the Fire as a machine that could make Amazon’s media services — some of which have lagged behind those of Apple, Netflix and others — as powerful as the Kindle has made it in books. The elements of Fire, he says, involve many services that Amazon has built in its 15-year history. Besides media, Fire involves its popular $79-a-year Amazon Prime service that allows customers free shipping, and the company’s quietly powerful Amazon Web Services infrastructure, which does computing for a huge number of internet companies, including even its competitor Netflix.

As with the Kindle, the Fire is not a shiny trigger for technolust. And it lacks some of the features of the iPad and other tablets. No camera. No GPS. Not even 3G. And only 8 gigabytes of storage.

But it is designed to do its job very well. Bezos insists that people not see Fire as a standalone device, but part of an integrated media service. “That’s why the Kindle has been successful,” he says. Like the original Kindle, the Fire arrives knowing who you are by your Amazon account — you’re ready to buy stuff. Weighing 14.6 ounces, it’s the size of a DVD case, and its seven-inch LCD screen shows movies sharply. It’s powered by a dual-core TI OMAP 4 chip. If you are one of millions who belong to Amazon Prime, you can stream from the reasonable if not totally satisfying (11,000 videos) collection of movies and TV shows for free. (Fire purchasers who are not Prime members get a one-month free tryout.) New software organizes music, which you can buy or upload to Amazon via its cloud music service.

Bezos takes special pride in the Fire’s speedy web browser, dubbed “Silk” because that substance is almost invisible yet really strong. The Fire uses a home-grown technology called “split browsing.” Because of Amazon’s advanced data centers, the company can handle some of the heavy digital lifting on time-consuming processes like loading web pages — before it sends the data off to the device itself. It gets a further boost because many popular sites use Amazon’s cloud services, allowing for greater efficiency. This enables Silk to run much faster than other tablet browsers.

Oh, and it also runs Flash. Take that, iPad.

Of course, because Fire runs on a modified version of the Android mobile operating system, Amazon has access to thousands of apps. Even though Amazon has made Fire simpler to use, it has taken care to make sure that you’ll have your Angry Birds.

“You can think of Android in two pieces,” says Bezos, citing what the user sees and what the developer has to deal with. “Android is simpler and easier to use in terms of user interface,” he says. “But our goal is to keep Android easy for developers — if they write an app, we’re going to work hard to make sure it’ll run on this device, but we’re going to — on the consumer-facing piece, you know — we’re starting with Android and making it simpler.”

Clearly Amazon is betting that there’s a big market for people who want tablets mostly for media and browsing — and don’t want to pay $500. But even if the Fire doesn’t give iPad a hotfoot, it will probably have a big impact on Amazon’s other competitors. Barnes and Noble, which had been feeling good about how recent versions of the Nook were arguably slicker than the now-outdated Kindles, is now outflanked by a more versatile color device and a very affordable e-reader.

Possibly the biggest loser today is not Apple, but Netflix. Just as its customers are outraged at higher pricing of Netflix streaming (and furious that the DVD business has been offloaded to a new subsidiary), here’s Amazon offering a nifty device with an even better price: $79 a year. And there are millions of people who pay for Amazon Prime who don’t even know they’re getting free video streaming. If Amazon builds up the inventory — and it certainly has the bucks and the clout to do this — it will be the logical place for disaffected Netflixsters to land after storming out of Reed Hastings’ house in a huff.

Still the introduction of Fire — which will ship November 15 — introduces a contradiction. For years, Bezos has been touting the virtues of e-ink for reading. Now he is introducing the first in what will probably be many back-lit, heavier Amazon devices. Which gadget will people choose?

Bezos has an answer. “They’re going to buy both,” he says.

But if that happens, who will stop playing Angry Birds long enough to read a book on the Kindle?

Amazon Announces the Kindle Fire for $199

 

Amazon announced today that they will be shipping on November 15th the Kindle Fire with a 7 inch color multi-touch screen for $199 dollars. With all the speculation it looks like they delivered on their promise of a highly functional reader complete with access to the web, ebooks, apps, music, and streaming video. At $199 dollars they will carve out a niche for those consumers who were waiting on the sideline to jump into purchasing a tablet of their own. The Kindle Fire will be powered by a dual core processor and host a multi-touch screen (7" multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors) and come standard with Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 Micro-B connector along with a the built-in Amazon Silk browser for fast web surfacing. The Kindle Fire is reported to be able to run for 8 hours on a full charge and can be charged with the wall AC Adapter or via a USB connection to a computer. The Kindle Fire will ship with has a native email client that can support Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc. Of course you will have access to the entire Amazon collection of music, videos, apps, and music which you can purchase for their store. This looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire will hit that sweet spot for a powerful but easy to use device that can serve as portable tool when we are away from our desks. For now the Kindle Fire only support Wi-Fi, but I would imagine if it is a success in the marketplace that we will see a 3G version as well. From the likes of it, it doesn't look like the Kindle Fire supports Bluetooth- but I will have to delve into that a little more. Amazon has put on their boxing gloves and looks to be in for the long haul as they position the Kindle Fire as an alternative to Apple's iPad. At a price point of $199 dollars the Kindle Fire is sure to be a winner for consumers. The Kindle Fire can be pre-ordered now from Amazon for a mid November delivery.

Flickr launches Android app, real-time photo sharing

Flickr announced its first official Android app today. (Credit: Yahoo)

SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo today unveiled the first official Android Flickr app, as well as a new feature that will allow users of its popular photo service to quickly and easily share pictures in real time with family and friends.

Released at a press event here that was meant to highlight part of Yahoo's overall mobile strategy, the new Android Flickr app is the first Yahoo has released, although developers have already built dozens for both Google's and Apple's mobile operating systems. There is already an official iOS app.




The new Flickr Android app gives users the ability to see their own photos, albums, and photostream, as well as that of friends and contacts. (Credit: Yahoo)

Within the new Android app, users will be able to access all their own photos, as well as their albums and contacts. They can see activity streams, and photos that friends have uploaded.

In addition, Flickr developed its own camera experience that is built into the app. It has a custom viewfinder that allows a user to select different photo ratios, and lets him quickly name new photos and add metadata. The app also automatically appends geolocation data. Any new photograph taken inside the app can be instantly and automatically uploaded to Flickr, and can also be sent to other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, by clicking a check box.

Photo Session
In addition to its new Android app, Flickr also unveiled its new Photo Session feature, which is intended to replicate the traditional way that people would show others pictures from vacations or of their kids or pets. But instead of requiring that everyone be in a room together, Photo Session is meant to make it possible to share such experiences regardless of where anyone is.

It works, said Eileen Hiromura, the product manager for Photo Session, by generating a unique URL that a Flickr user can then send to up to 10 friends or family members. Once they click on the URL, those people can then join a group viewing of an album.




Flickr unveiled Photo Session, a feature that makes it possible for users to share photos with friends and family in real time. (Credit: Yahoo)

The idea here is that the person who generated the session controls how those he or she shared it with see the pictures. So, as that person moves from photo to photo in the album, others taking part in the session will see the same progression. The feature works on computers, iPads, and iPhones. The URL lasts for 24 hours.

Photo Session also lets others who are partaking in an album viewing to make modifications to photos--such as drawing on them--that are instantly seen by everyone involved. And anyone invited to join a Photo Session group can also choose to browse the photos at their own leisure rather than look at them at the speed chosen by the photos' owner. If they want, they can then re-join the group whenever they want.




Photo Session will allow anyone participating in a group to modify photos. Everyone else in the session will see the modifications, such as drawings. (Credit: Yahoo)

Flickr lead product manager Markus Spiering suggested that it's not entirely clear when users will create new Photo Sessions, but said it's likely that people who want to ensure friends and family members will be available to join a group together will contact those people in advance of sending out the session invitation.

Yahoo's eight mobile pillars
Flickr's announcements today were part of what Yahoo head of communications and community products Steve Douty said was the company's newly defined eight mobile strategic pillars.

Those pillars are, Douty said, delivering personal, quality content; a three-screen approach that brings Yahoo content in a seamless fashion to users' tablets, mobile phones, and computers; creating app-enhanced experiences; creating social and local scenarios that take advantage of what Yahoo knows about its users; creating continuous conversations between users irrespective of what kind of device they're using; sharing companion experiences with friends and family across devices; doing a better job of monetizing the company's mobile base via better mobile ads and commerce; and lastly, building new partner-friendly capabilities.

DOJ asks Google for more data about Motorola deal

Google today acknowledged receiving a so-called "second request" from the Justice Department for information as it considers the search giant's plans to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.


Google made the disclosure in a blog post this afternoon, saying the request was for "more information" in order to continue the review.

"While this means we won't be closing right away, we're confident that the DOJ will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile ecosystem will remain highly competitive after this deal closes," Google Senior Vice President Dennis Woodside wrote in the post. "We'll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review."

The move is likely to prolong, and could potentially complicate, the review process.

Woodside dismissed the request as "pretty routine." And he pointed to a previous second request that Google received a year ago, shortly after it announced plans to acquire travel data provider ITA Software.

But while the Justice Department ultimately approved Google's acquisition of ITA, the agency compelled Google to agree to certain conduct. Regulators required Google to continue licensing ITA's travel technology to rivals for five years on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms, and forward to the agency any complaints the company receives from travel competitors upset about where they land in Google's search rankings.

Moreover, second requests are perhaps less routine than Woodside suggests. According to The Wall Street Journal, about 4 percent of all deals last year received a second request from U.S. antitrust agencies.

In a regulatory filing, Motorola acknowledged receiving a second request as well.

"The companies intend to cooperate fully and respond expeditiously to the DOJ," the company wrote in its filing. "The transaction is currently expected to close by the end of 2011 or in early 2012."

There seemed little doubt that regulators would look closely at the deal when it was announced last month. The Federal Trade Commission began an antitrust investigation into the search giant's business in June. And a week prior to the announcement of the Motorola deal, the Journal reported that the FTC was including Google's Android mobile operating system in that investigation over concerns that the company was preventing handset makers from using rival technology.

Just last week, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt faced tough questions at a Senate hearing looking into the company's business tactics.

"We know that close scrutiny is part of the process and we've been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice over the past few weeks," Woodside wrote in his post.

It seems likely that those conversations will continue for a bit longer than Google might otherwise have hoped.

Samsung launches Galaxy R Android 2.3 and Tegra 2

Samsung yesterday announced its newest Android phone, the Galaxy R. The naming scheme makes sense phones after they discover their technical specifications and realizes that he is a little less advanced than the S Galaxy II.

Nevertheless, as you can see from the pictures above, it is not so different. The design is basically the same, except the outline of the camera and back. But the similarities stop at design. Unlike his brother S II, Galaxy R comes with an LCD screen of 19.4 inches with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. He also has a 5 megapixel back camera with flash, front camera of 2 megapixels, comes with 8 GB of internal flash memory and runs Android 2.3. 

The Tegra processor is one with a 2 GHz clock. And as it is the family of NVIDIA, the company managed a unit of Galaxy R and made a video demonstrating some of the features of it, which you can check below.

Google Nexus Prime with Android 4.0 await in October

According to a report from BGR, Google nexus prime smart phone third self branded android device will lunch this October 2011. Sources have confirmed that the original report came from electronic times.

Electronic times had professed that, Google’s Nexus Prime is the first smart phone to be prepared with the Android 4.0 operating system, the fans excited about the new version of the Android operating system, and it looks impressive.

Google Nexus Prime Detailed specifications:

* 1.5GHz Exynos dual-core processor
* 4.65-inche display
* Super AMOLED HD screen
* 1280x720 - resolution
* 1GB RAM
* OS: Android 2.4.1
* 16GB internal memory
* 8MP camera
* Battery: 2000mAh
* Weight: 130-140g