Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, introduced the the Kindle DX at Pace Univeristy in New York on Wednesday.
By BRAD STONE and MOTOKO RICH in The New York Times, Published: May 6, 2009
Most electronic devices are getting smaller. Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reader is bucking the trend.
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Amazon's new Kindle DX.
Amazon on Wednesday introduced a larger version of the Kindle, pitching it as a new way for people to read textbooks, newspapers and their personal documents.
The device, called the Kindle DX (for Deluxe), has a screen that is two and a half times the size of the screens on the two older versions of the Kindle, which were primarily aimed at displaying books. The price tag is also larger: the DX will sell for $489, or $130 more than the previous model, the Kindle 2, and will go on sale this summer.
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, speaking to a crowd of journalists and Amazon employees and business partners on the campus of Pace University, said the new Kindle was a step in the direction of a long-dreamed-of paperless society.
Amazon said it had reached agreements with three major textbook publishers, Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley Higher Education, to make their books available in the Kindle store. The company also said that six colleges and universities — Pace, Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College and the University of Virginia — would begin testing the device later this year with students.
Amazon also said that three newspapers, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, would begin offering devices this summer at a reduced price to subscribers who sign up for long-term subscriptions. But few details were available, and both Amazon and the newspapers described it as a pilot program.
In an interview, Mr. Bezos said universities might ultimately purchase Kindles for students, just as some schools buy computers.
Geoffrey Brackett, the provost of Pace, said the university would be distributing the new Kindles to about 50 students, and comparing them to another cohort of 50 students studying the same material using traditional textbooks, to see differences in how the two groups learn.
Mr. Brackett said he expected the university to split the cost of the Kindles with Amazon. He said it was yet to be determined whether the students would get the devices on loan or as a gift. “It is very early in the discussion,” he said.
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And check out Amazon's ad for the new Kindle DX
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