Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Update: Kindle 2.0

Note: I was on vacation for the past week and thus unable to post when the following event occured (since I chose not to pay the $0.55/minute internet cost on the cruise I went on).

In a recent post I proposed (along with 90% of the world) that at Amazon's February 9 "mystery" press conference, Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) would announce the release date for the Amazon Kindle 2.0. The following may come as a shock; but, I (we) were correct. The Amazon Kindle 2.0 will be available on February 24, 2009.


Since I am not planning on getting one anytime soon because of the $359 sticker price, I get to sit back and watch the show and see if it grabs hold of the reading world and revolutionizes the way we read. In my opinion, it is inevitable that e-reading devices take over, just as the iPod has nearly put the nail in the coffin for Compact Disks. No matter what camp you are in ("electronic reading is the wave of the future" versus "reading without a physical book is insane") one thing is for sure: in a climate geared more towards sustainability and with businesses pinching every peeny, publishers will be selling more electronic documents and less physical books. A publisher can produce (and sell) a book electronically for a fraction of the cost of a physical book AND increasing revenue exponentially. Sometimes the bottom line forces innovation.

I suggested on January 27 to purchase Amazon stock (AMZN) at $48.40 per share. My hypothetical investment (since I was unable to convince my wife of the coming revolution in the book world) of 100 shares at the time would have cost me $4840. Approximately a week and a half later I checked back and my hypothetical investment would have yielded me a net profit of approximately $1,800. AMZN stock is now selling at $61.67, yielding me a profit of $1327. Obviously it is slightly down now from my initial check, and this could be for several reasons, including the Author's Guild's concern that the text to speech infringes on author and publisher rights, the high sticker price which was rumored to be around $250 months ago, and the troubling market in general.

As I mentioned, my wife was not convinced by my argument. She responded something along the lines of "Now is not the time to be gambling in the stock market." And of course, her logic is solid, but for the sake of sensationalism, I simply responded, "It's not a gamble if it is a lock!
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Amazon stock over the past month

I've said it before and I'll say it again, buy AMZN stock. Stay tuned.

Good reading (and investing),

Plants and Books

2 comments:

  1. Wow, your wife sounds like a solid chick with a good head on her shoulders. I wish my wife managed our money so well. You should be happy you have her, and thank her everyday.
    P.S. When are you going to post your latest "pages read" graph? I bet you have read a lot recently, and I am anxious to see!

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  2. I will probably post another pages read thread at the end of the month. There was definately a solid spike during our vacation, when I read a hair shy of 2000 pages.

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