Amazon sells own gadget to boost e-books

By Anick Jesdanun

updated 3:22 p.m. ET Nov. 19, 2007

NEW YORK - Amazon.com Inc. is hoping to invigorate a nascent market for electronic books by introducing its own e-book reader with free wireless connectivity.

Monday's long-anticipated announcement comes as e-books remain a sliver of overall book sales, partly because they lack the comfort and intimacy of bound paper.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the online retailer spent three years developing the Kindle reader, which the company is selling online for $399.

Rather than try to "outbook" the bound book, Bezos said, Amazon designed Kindle with the e-book's strengths in mind.

It is thinner than most paperbacks and weighs 10.3 ounces. Yet it can hold some 200 books, along with newspapers, magazines and an entire dictionary.

Readers can buy and download books directly to the Kindle — without a PC — through Sprint Nextel Corp.'s high-speed EV-DO cellular network without fees or contract commitments. They also can take notes on what they read and store them on Amazon's servers.

Kindle users can turn off wireless connectivity when they are on airplanes — though they also must shut off the device during takeoff and landing, prime reading time for some.

Sony Corp. already offers an e-book reader that imitates the look of paper by using an innovative screen technology.

The Kindle screen takes a similar approach and has no backlight to reduce battery use and eyestrain. Bezos said Amazon decided to make its own device so it could seamlessly build a service around it.

Best sellers and new releases will typically go for $9.99.

MORE FROM GADGETS

Gadgets Section Front

Sony opens up e-book Reader   Apple CEO's private matter a public concern It's taking time to 'grow' green PCs Latest and greatest in inexpensive tech 1,600-year-old version of Bible goes online Black market iPhones big in Russia, China Survey: Consumers steered to costlier TVs The market for skinny laptops gets fat Latest Mitch Albom treatise is online only Lighter laptops move to flash-based drives Gadgets Section Front   Add Gadgets headlines to your news reader: