Earlier this week, I commented that the latest surge in small e-readers—I'm talking concerning those credit card-sized, Chinese-made e-ink devices that have rotate into all the rage on BookTok and Reddit—was the most engaging item to happen to e-readers in years. From the Xteink X4 Pro to the forthcoming Boox Picco, these wee small guys, which are small adequate to stumble into any pocket, have gathered a cult following of readers who award ultra-portability complete all else.
Today's notice of a redesigned row of Kindles didn't do item to alter that opinion. Setting apart the additional disclose of long-requested accessories akin a Bluetooth page-turn remote and a charging dock, these new Kindles mostly provision the identical acquainted Amazon e-reader cognition in a slightly additional refined package. And if you were expecting Amazon power hop on the bandwagon alongside a small e-reader of its own—or equal a phone-shaped e-reader akin the Boox Palma— well, I wouldn't clasp your breath.
Yesterday, Amazon welcomed another journalists and me to the company's New York City agency to inspect out the new Kindles, and during our conversation alongside Kevin Keith, vice chairman of the Kindle team, we asked him if the business has been monitoring the pocket e-reader trend, and if it would always create a Kindle alongside a display smaller than the norm six inches. His reply didn't astonishment me at all.
"Our answer to that is, I think [the essential Kindle]—when you're at 140 grams, and you're this lightweight, you can transport it nearly anywhere. I transport these in my pocket. In your bag, you're not equal going to cognize it's there," Keith said. "I think that's archetypal and foremost what I'd say." That is, Amazon already thinks the six-inch device is plentifulness small adequate for most readers, and as a company, Amazon is mostly targeting most readers. The small e-reader spectators is "a extremely vocal collection of people," he added, "but I don't cognize how big that collection of group is."
While it's monitoring the chatter about devices akin the Palma or equal smaller options akin the X4 Pro, for Amazon, the existing entry-level Kindle is "a really fine format," Keith said. "Getting to four or five inches, I think there's fair a lot of compromises there that you have to make. The center answer is fair making a improved admission device."
Chris Green, Kindle's vice chairman of design, a seasoned who has worked on all Kindle equipment preserve the first-generation example (which was released fair as he joined the company), agreed, during leaving the entrance open fair a expert wider: "I think they're fascinating," Green stated of smaller substitute e-readers, during admitting they weren't for him (he prefers to peruse on a enormous Kindle Scribe). "Are we going to do one? I don't know. Are we looking into them? Yes."
What does "looking into them" mean? Well, "we appearance into everything," he said, noting Amazon has earlier investigated the two foldable and rollable e-readers. "But those things are fascinating," he added. "I don't cognize if [they're] going to be successful, but [they're] certainly value watching."
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