Amazon's Kindle Device Attempts to Rewrite the E-Book

NEW YORK — Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. unveiled a much-anticipated device for reading electronic books and newspapers Monday, creating its first hardware device and betting it can succeed where other reader gadgets have failed.

The $400 Amazon Kindle is about the size of a slim trade paperback and uses electronic ink technology to mimic the look of the printed page on its black-and-white screen. It can hold more than 200 books and other publications downloaded directly to the device over a free national wireless network.

As digital technology has transformed everything from music and TV to phone calls and postcards, the book has resisted change. Attempts to replace bound paper and ink with plastic and silicon have not caught on.

"Can you improve on something as highly evolved and as well suited to its task as the book?" Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asked reporters at a Kindle launch event in Manhattan. He called books "the last bastion of analog."

Bezos, after delivering a brief history of the written word going back to papyrus scrolls, said his company knew it could never "out-book the book."

But, he said, after three years of work the Kindle delivers a pleasurable reading experience and many features that go beyond traditional books.

The Kindle is different from previous e-book efforts, said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. He noted the wireless connection, based on a Sprint Nextel Corp. high-speed cellular network, and download prices set at about $10 for new releases and New York Times best sellers.

"This is exactly the type of device that could take this technology mainstream," Gartenberg said. "In order to do something like this, you really need a company the size and scale of Amazon to get behind it."

The first buyers will likely be loyal Amazon customers, business travelers and others who like to read but don't like to carry books, analysts said. They said the device also has the potential to replace the textbooks carried by overburdened students.

Only hours after the announcement, Web message boards and Amazon's own Kindle page buzzed as some Kindle users praised the device while many other posters said they would never buy it because of the price, black-and-white screen and Amazon's control of the content.

"Drop a book and you pick it up and continue reading and donate to a library when you're done," one critic wrote on Amazon's site. "Drop the Kindle and you're out $400."

The Kindle weights about 10 ounces and runs for more than a day of constant use on a rechargeable battery. It has a rubberized grip, a thumb-typing keyboard and large buttons around the screen for changing pages.

To reduce power consumption and eyestrain, the screen has no backlight.

The gadget can wirelessly access an online Kindle Store with more than 90,000 titles. It downloads a book without connecting to a computer in about a minute using "Whispernet," a network that Amazon touts as free of monthly bills or service commitments.

While the device has many reading functions and a basic Web browser described as experimental, it is not a typical multifunction gadget and lacks features such as a phone or calendar.

The Kindle can access a dictionary and the Wikipedia user-written online encyclopedia. Kindle users also can adjust the text size for easier reading and put their own documents on the device using a dedicated e-mail address for 10 cents each.

Besides books, users can subscribe to blogs, magazines and newspapers from around the U.S. and the world including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is among the papers available for the Kindle launch.

Newspapers automatically update on the device overnight. After two-week free trials, monthly newspaper subscriptions cost from $5.99 to $14.99 and magazines $1.25 to $3.49. Individual blog delivery starts at 99 cents each month.

Sony Corp. already sells an e-book reader using electronic ink technology for about $300.

For Seattle-based Amazon, the Kindle could be a gateway to bigger things, said Scott Devitt, an analyst with the Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. investment firm. He said Kindle could evolve to offer other services, including Amazon shopping beyond e-books.

"It points at exactly what Amazon is attempting to do, which is bring the store closer to the customer," he said.

On the Web:

Amazon Kindle: www.amazon.com/kindle