China's Hanvon Plans to Enter U.S. This Year to Challenge Amazon's Kindle DX

Bloomberg: "Hanvon Technology Co., the maker of China’s most popular electronic reading device, plans to introduce an e-reader in the U.S. by June or July to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle DX. Hanvon, which says it controls as much as 70 percent of the Chinese e-reader market, is targeting educational and professional users with a 9.7-inch-screen device. The Kindle DX is the largest in Amazon’s family of e-readers. ... "

Amazon's Kindle DX Gets Mixed Reviews in College Classrooms

Seeking Alpha: "The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business converted many case studies used in first year classes and selected 62 students and 10 faculty members for a pilot program. Although students approved of the large screen and ability to reduce the need to carry large amounts of paper, the Kindle did not offer sufficient flexibility in a classroom environment. Difficulty annotating cases and quickly accessing different documents were cited as major limitations of the device and some students eventually abandoned the Kindle in favor of laptops or paper. ... "

In Praise of the Amazon Kindle DX (Graphite) Screen

From Computerworld:

What a difference a display can make. All it took was turning on the Amazon Kindle DX (Graphite) second-generation large-format e-reader to see that Amazon's claims of a higher-contrast display than its predecessor were true. The E-Ink display on the new Kindle DX ($380, price as of 7/9/2010) indeed reflects a significant improvement in contrast, as evidenced by the clarity of the crisp text, and the darker blacks of graphics and words alike. ...

E Ink Pearl for the Revised (But Still Doomed "Odd Duck") Kindle DX

The adoption of E Ink Pearl is actually a pretty major leap, taking the Kindle family of products significantly closer to color displays. From Chris Nuttal on the Financial Times Tech Blog:

“We are in the process of building a colour display - our colour display is essentially a monochrome display with a colour filter on top,” Sri Peruvemba, head of E Ink global sales, told me.

This filter reduces the light going into the display, affecting the contrast, which is particularly noticeable on black and white text.

“We had to change the fundamental display so that we had double the contrast. Then, when we put the colour filter on top, the black and white text should look at least as good as the current product - so that’s what drove us to do this.”

E Ink has adjusted the chemistry of its black and white pigments and optimised the display to produce contrast ratios that can be better than the 50 per cent improvement claimed for the DX. ...

(Note: You'll find an excellent summary of the Pearl display technology here.) As PC Magazine observes, however, neither the new screen technology nor the DX price cut are likely to save that specific device:

The Kindle DX, of course, isn't an iPad-style tablet, nor was it designed to be. It's essentially a plus-sized e-reader with a 9.7-inch display; global 3G service for downloading e-books and a limited selection of Web-based content; and a mini-keyboard that's sufficient for limited text entry.

In short, it's a nonconformist struggling to find a niche. Want to read in coach on a cross-country flight? Lounge by the pool and indulge in a trashy bestseller? Take your e-reader to the gym? The smaller devices are a better ergonomic match for these uses. Sure, the Kindle DX has a larger screen, but its bigger form factor can be a disadvantage too. A smaller e-reader is easier to pack. It's lighter too. (Yes, we're talking a few ounces here, but those add up when you're holding a reader for hours at a time.)

Tablet shoppers? Kindle DX isn't on their radar screen. The iPad crowd wants a whiz-bang gadget for apps, games, movies, and music--and that's not the Kindle's thing. Besides, the DX looks old school, even if it isn't. ... Younger customers might think, "Hey, this would be great for my mom..."

Oh no. The stench of uncool.

Kindle DX may ultimately find its niche in vertical markets such as education, where e-textbook readers could prove an affordable alternative to conventional textbooks. (Come to think of it, anything would be more affordable than today's overpriced textbooks.) However, a trial run at Princeton University last year was a bust, with students griping about the DX's slow performance, poor annotation tools, and page-reformatting quirks. ...

DX is dead. Long live the Kindle. Soon to be color.

July 7th - Kindle DX Gets Cheaper and (Please God) Better

From Mobility Site:

While this may be a little bit removed from the real battle going on between iPads, Kindles and Nooks for hearts, minds and reading habits, it does show that Amazon is not holding back anything. The beleaguered Kindle DX, the 9 inch ebook reader despised by almost every college student who has tasted it, is changing colors and prices.

Shipping as of July 7th, the price for a new Kindle DX will fall by nearly $100, to $379 from $489. It also now comes in a hep new color (do college kids still say “hep”?), graphite (which looks more like charcoal to me), but for US models only and is touting better screen contrast. ...