Amazon: The Kindle for the TikTok technology is meant to defeat the Alexa curse | EUROtoday

This Tuesday morning, Amazon left nothing to probability. In “The Shed,” a light-flooded artwork gallery in New York, the solar shines by the big ceiling home windows. Here the US on-line retailer has introduced its newest e-book readers, the so-called Kindle. The gadgets actually shine in the most effective mild. The brighter the atmosphere, the better it’s to learn on the readers.

With the brand new technology, Amazon has now launched the most important modifications in a few years. The premium mannequin particularly provides wonderful capabilities. In addition, Amazon has fulfilled probably the most fervent want of its common readers.

The firm urgently wants success in its tools division. While the “Alexa” voice recognition enterprise has by no means actually paid off, the e-book reader enterprise seems significantly promising. Amazon now has the best hopes for the TikTok technology.

The group introduced 4 gadgets in New York. This features a mannequin with a shade show for the primary time: the Kindle Colorsoft. “We always wanted to bring color to the Kindle,” mentioned Kevin Keith, accountable product supervisor at Amazon, in an interview with WELT. It was probably the most often talked about request from clients. “But color can be a pretty difficult subject,” Keith mentioned.

The firm has been tinkering with the know-how for years. The Colorsoft’s display screen has a brand new mild information with so-called nitride LEDs.

The gadget may show colours with out blurring or pixelating, not like smartphone shows. The gadget can also be waterproof and is subsequently additionally appropriate for the tub or the seaside.

Kindle Scribe is extra than simply an e-book reader

Amazon has most likely introduced probably the most vital advances in its flagship mannequin: the Kindle Scribe, which isn’t simply an e-book reader, however a digital pocket book. Users can now write annotations immediately within the textual content or within the margins of a e-book. Until now, this was solely potential by way of an advanced word window. The scribe can also be appropriate for sketches. This is made potential by a revised digital pen with eraser.

The show has an improved paper-like texture, in order that digital writing really feels and sounds deceptively actual, as an preliminary check with the gadgets confirmed. Amazon wanted dozens of design approaches for this.

Because the tip of the pen wears out whereas writing, the corporate contains 5 alternative heads. “We tried to get as close to a book as possible,” Keith mentioned.

The on-line large has additionally launched new AI capabilities that might be obtainable on the Scribe fashions. With one click on, customers can convert their messy notes into lovely cursive or have them summarized utilizing AI. Amazon depends on a number of so-called Large Language Models (LLMs), the information is processed encrypted in its personal cloud.

For now, the capabilities are solely obtainable within the USA and in English. In addition, customers don’t but have the choice to prioritize particular person notes within the automated summaries.

And Scribe house owners will most likely nonetheless have to attend for AI summaries of books. In advance, many had hoped that future fashions may additionally use AI to reply particular person questions on e-book content material.

New model of the Kindle Paperwhite

Additionally, Amazon has launched a revised model of its hottest e-book reader, the Paperwhite. The gadget now has a 7-inch display screen and is alleged to be the quickest mannequin to this point.

Users can change pages round 25 p.c sooner with the gadget than with the earlier model. The firm additionally guarantees the very best distinction ratio of all Kindle gadgets, in addition to a battery lifetime of three months.

Amazon desires to make use of the momentum with the brand new gadgets. Most not too long ago, the group was capable of report its highest gross sales figures in a decade, it’s mentioned. The on-line large has nice hopes for the younger technology of all folks. “What we’re seeing is a shift toward even younger people,” Keith mentioned.

This is basically attributable to the truth that many younger customers are at the moment discovering Amazon gadgets for the primary time. Around 60 p.c of Kindle gadgets final yr went to first-time patrons.

In the previous, youthful folks would have spent their time on their smartphones and never studying. “The distraction-free environment of a Kindle is what people have returned to,” Keith believes. “They have been overwhelmed by smartphones.”

Amazon’s gadget fiasco

The new Kindle variations are the hope of the web large’s gadget division. After all, different merchandise have most likely not paid off but, particularly the “Alexa” voice recognition and the related “Echo” loudspeakers.

They are mentioned to have been a monetary fiasco for the group, because the Wall Street Journal not too long ago reported as regards to inside paperwork. In the 5 years between 2017 and 2021 alone, the gadget division round Alexa introduced in additional than $25 billion for the corporate, it says.

The firm’s technique up to now has been to set costs low for Echo audio system and different good gadgets. At the identical time, the group has invested closely within the improvement of its language assistant.

Customers ought to then generate revenue after they use it, for instance by on-line orders utilizing voice instructions. But such a buying has not but change into established.

Amazon itself has repeatedly identified up to now that the gadget division has constructed up quite a few worthwhile enterprise areas and is effectively positioned to proceed doing so. Customers around the globe had been utilizing a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of Amazon gadgets, which was an enormous success, it mentioned.

But there’s additionally new hope for Alexa, not least due to the present pattern round synthetic intelligence and digital assistants. There is concept, for instance, a few paid model of Alexa, for which the corporate may cost a month-to-month subscription worth. Paying customers would obtain new AI capabilities in return. The traditional Alexa will stay free, as US media studies.

At “The Shed” in New York, guests merely pulled out their smartphones to take photographs of the brand new fashions. “A large proportion of Millennials and Gen Z are talking about books again, especially on social networks,” mentioned Amazon supervisor Keith, unable to withstand a dig. “So TikTok was more useful for us here.”

Laurin Meyer is a enterprise correspondent for WELT New York. He primarily studies on the American financial coverage, German corporations within the United States and Big Tech. He can also be co-host of the WELT podcast “Everything on stocks”.