Today Amazon unveiled the very exciting new product that has been given the name Kindle. It is a thin display with high resolution which is meant to be used to read books, blogs, newspapers and magazines. I think this one will be a big success (at least in the US) mainly because of two reasons. First of all it’s just because of the fact that it is Amazon who is launching the product. They have got power, influence and superior relationship with end customers and the big media companies.

Secondly because it’s a very interesting product also from a technical standpoint – no system requirements at all! No computer, no cables, no syncing. The Kindle’s got EVDO technology built-in which basically makes it able to do data transmissions through the mobile network without having access to any WiFi hotspots. Instant access thousands and thousands of books.

The display is 6 inches big and has a resolution of 600×800 which gives you a resolution of 167 pixels per inch which is good enough to give you a nice reading experience. The device also gives you free access to Wikipedia and comes with a built-in dictionary. A monthly subscription to a daily newspaper will cost you between $9.99 and $14.99 and a typical book (88 000 books are available as of today) is also around $9.99. Surprisingly you even have to pay $1 to get RSS-feeds from popular blogs. The device is $400 and it will be very interesting to follow the development of the Kindle. I wonder how many of these they will sell for christmas?

Amazon Kindle [amazon.com]