Q&A with Lance Ulanoff, PCMag.com Editor, on New Kindle

Amazon today announced its Kindle DX, with the 9.7-inch e-ink display, PDF reader, and automatic display rotation feature. The New York Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post will offer reduced-rate subscriptions for people not in their usual delivery areas, and Amazon has textbook deals with Pearson, Cengage, and Wiley, which, Amazon claims, cover 60 percent of textbook sales. According to Amazon, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will all launch trial programs this fall, making the Kindles available to their students. PCMag.com editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff had mentioned on Twitter that he was heading to the Kindle launch, so I talked with him for a few minutes about his impression of the new device and some of its business aspects.

BNET: What was your immediate impression of the Kindle DX?

Lance Ulanoff: Big. [Laughs.] I actually asked one of the Amazon people if they had the same impression that I did, that it made the original Kindle’s screen look tiny. We knew everything about this product going into the event. In fact, one of the things we thought would be in there wasn’t -– that is, a browser. But it’s about it being larger and the relationships with the newspapers and the textbook publishers. Depending on how quickly they can get [the text books] into the system, and what the parameters of their relationships are, that’s a great star. But they only have a few universities having bought into it.

BNET: Textbooks historically have had enormous margins, given their high price. This would seem to give Amazon a door into a real boost to earnings.

LU: You remember buying [textbooks] in school. Even at half price they’re going to be pretty pricy, but the cost to produce them has suddenly dropped tremendously. They still have to do the layouts and the charts and tables. Artwork is of prime importance and those things have to be produced. This means as far as the school bookstore, it’s a source of income for schools. I did find out from Arizona State that this trial program is them handing a core set of students Kindles pre-loaded with their textbooks. They’re not going to be shopping and then downloading, and they’re not going to be paying for these devices, so that may change how they feel about them.

BNET: So you think that Amazon will be discounting the textbook prices?

LU: I think it’s going to be about 50 percent. That’s the model they’re working on with best sellers and new books – between 30 and 50 percent less .Which is the difference between a student being able to afford the books and not affording them. And it may make them more open to buying a new book rather than buying a used book.

BNET: Ah, good point. The publishers might get enough additional volume in sales to more than make up the cut in price. But, still, at $489, that’s one expensive reader.

LU: I thought it was going to be int eh $500 range, and they did not disappoint. But if you’re saving money on books and newspapers, it could save.

BNET: What about not having a browser? Is that a real loss?

LU: It had been one of the possible features discussed, and I verified that there was no new feature that we missed. That keeps it a well defined product. It’s trying to do one thing really well. My experience with the current smaller generation is that it gets the job done. As long as you have the right expectation, you’re going to be pleased. And the always one access to information instead of carrying a huge number of books could be a huge boon –in a format that doesn’t make them feel wildly out of step with what goes on in the classroom.”

BNET: Might Google come out with a reader based on Android, especially given the number of books it already has scanned in?

LU: How quickly are any Google gadgets coming out? None of us entirely understand what the holdup is.

BNET: How about Apple and Sony as competition?

LU: This [new model] sets the Kindle apart. Sony has a very good reader there, but lately they don’t seem to be marketing things very hard into the US. They could lose ground because Amazon is moving quickly. The big barrier to entry of course is the price, but the trial programs will get thousands of them into students’ hands, and that may be good seeding for them.

BNET: What do you think about the DX coming out during an economic downturn?

LU: A down economy is no reason to stop innovating, and I think that’s really what Amazon is trying to do. Do they have some R&D money to work with? It seems that they do, and books and movies are forms of entertainment that are perfect for cash-strapped times. Why not sell a big ticket item that gives you access to inexpensive entertainment. This is in time for fall. If they hadn’t made this announcement now, they’d probably have to have waited another year.

Kindle DX image courtesy of Amazon.com.