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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Amazon introduces four new Kindle eBook readers

Amazon Kindle familyAmazon has updated its range of Kindle e-book readers with four new devices. Three share a similar design to previous Kindles, while the fourth - the Kindle Fire - is an Android-based tablet. The two current Kindle devices - now renamed the Kindle Keyboard and the Kindle Keyboard 3G - will remain on sale.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, said “Kindle Fire brings together all of the things we've been working on at Amazon for over 15 years into a single, fully-integrated service for customers. With Kindle Fire, you have instant access to all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, the convenience of Amazon Whispersync, our revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser, the speed and power of a state-of-the-art dual-core processor, a vibrant touch display with 16 million colors in high resolution, and a light 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand - all for only $199. We're offering premium products, and we're doing it at non-premium prices.”

The lowest-priced Kindle now sells for £89 in the UK. It’s smaller than current devices and lacks a QWERTY keyboard but still has a 6-inch electronic ink display and WiFi connectivity.

The Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are only available to pre-order in the USA. They also have monochrome electronic ink displays, although these displays are touch-sensitive. All three US-spec versions of these new devices will display special offers and sponsored screensavers when users aren’t reading; non-sponsored devices will be available at a higher price.

The $199 Kindle Fire is based on the Android operating system, using a 7-inch colour touch-screen, a dual-core processor and a cloud-based browser called Amazon Silk. Amazon is promoting the device alongside its Amazon Prime service, which provides unlimited, commercial-free streaming of movies and TV shows. The retailer has also arranged partnerships that include exclusive graphic novels, interactive magazines and newspapers. It’ll be available from 15th November in the US; there’s no news about UK availability at the moment.

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Opinion Articles

Hanging on the Telephone

Are we waiting for mobile marketing to make a move?

Mark Bridge writes:

At the beginning of the 21st century I moved from Vodafone to work for its Vizzavi multimedia portal, wooed by talk of context-specific advertising that would one day use a customer’s location and search history to ensure any ads were precisely targeted. And I’m not the only person who’s been seduced. Consumers, ad agencies, client companies and mobile networks have all been promised much by mobile marketing.

Yet more than a decade later that kind of sophistication seems to be lacking from most mobile marketing messages.

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 29th April 2013

Money, messaging, microphones and M2M

Mark Bridge writes:

This week there was only one set of financial results that attracted the mainstream tech media. Apple reported the first drop in quarterly profit for several years as figures fell by 18% to around £6.1 billion. On the positive side, it made around £6.1 billion profit. It also announced dates for its developer conference in June and promised a new version of iOS.

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Fixed line nightmares vs simple mobile

...and why Mobile Termination Rates need to fall

James Rosewell writes:

Due to growth in staff numbers my business (51Degrees.mobi) is in the process of moving offices. Coincidentally I'm also moving our home broadband. It’s not been a pleasant experience.

This got me thinking, because a few weeks ago on thefonecast.com we discussed why Ofcom isn’t treating Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) in the same way as fixed-line termination rates. The mobile industry justifies higher MTRs on the assumption that a mobile network costs more to run than a fixed-line network. It was certainly true when the fixed costs of running a mobile network had to be shared across a relatively small number of customers, even if they did pay a fortune for their contracts and terminals. Intuitively I'd say that’s just not true anymore.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 22nd April 2013

Spring in the air

Mark Bridge writes:

The past few days have seen the arrival of two familiar seasons. Not only has the sun peeked its head from behind the clouds in an approximation of Spring but the mobile industry has been releasing its quarterly results.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 15th April 2013

Going up...

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s claimed there’s recently been some dodgy equine activity in the mobile industry. No, I’m not talking about the dancing pony that promoted Three UK. I’m not even making lasagne jokes. I’m talking about the ‘Trojan horse’ threatening to monopolise the mobile marketplace.

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