Amazon introducing cheaper, thinner, faster Kindle

Amid growing competition from Apple's iPad and other e-readers, Amazon.com is launching a redesigned Kindle that's smaller, faster and has Wi-Fi and twice the battery life.

The $189 price and 6-inch screen size are the same, but the new version has an improved navigation system that replaces the Kindle's quirky joystick with a more standard control pad. It also has the higher-contrast display that debuted last month on the larger Kindle DX.

But the blockbuster is likely to be a $139 Wi-Fi-only version of the new Kindle — the first without 3G cellular service — that could help Amazon maintain its lead position as the market surges in coming years.

"We think that will make a significant impact on the number of multi-Kindle households and just broaden the overall ability for people to get it," said Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle at Seattle-based Amazon.

The company is announcing the new models and taking orders Thursday. They'll be shipped starting Aug. 27.

Amazon's not saying a lot about what's inside the new models, but it provided lots of specifications. They're 15 percent lighter, 21 percent smaller and turn pages 20 percent faster. The battery charge lasts four weeks, up from two weeks, and the device holds 3,500 books, up from 1,500.

Amazon also has finally added a light of sorts to the Kindle. For the new model, the company is releasing a $60 book cover with a slide-out LED light that's powered by the Kindle battery.

The bare-bones Kindle is also priced $10 under a new Wi-Fi-only version of the Nook e-reader that Barnes & Noble announced last month.

Yet Freed insists the company is focused more on improving its reading device than on the competition. "Our goal is to build the best possible reading experience in a device that we possibly can," he said.

Still, the Kindle's competition now includes the iPad with its vivid color touch screen and the Nook, which has a dual display with both color output and black and white for text.

Freed said the company considered adding a touch screen but found it interferes too much with the display.

In the meantime, Freed believes the Kindle can hold its own against the iPad, noting that "most books are black and white" and the Kindle's display is readable outdoors and in bright sunlight. At 8.7 ounces, it's nearly half the weight of an iPad.

Although the Kindle has become an important part of Amazon's business, with sales of Kindle books recently overtaking its sales of hardcovers, the company refuses to say exactly how many Kindle devices have sold since it debuted in November 2007.

Freed said Amazon has sold "millions" of Kindles and sales were up year-over-year in each of the last three months, especially after its price was cut to $189, from $259, in June.

James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, estimates Amazon has sold about 4 million and will reach 6 million by the end of the year. He believes it has about two-thirds of the U.S. market for e-readers.

In a report last week, he predicted 29.4 million people in the U.S. will own e-readers by 2015, up from 3.7 million at the end of 2009. It cited surveys that found more people are still interested in e-readers than iPads.

Of the 20 percent of Americans thinking about buying an e-reader, 69 percent are eyeing a Kindle, the report said.

Sezmi launching

Sezmi, an ambitious TV startup led by veterans of Sony and Clearwire, is finally launching its service in Seattle next month.

The company offers an alternative to cable and satellite TV services, using special hardware that receives TV content over the air and via broadband Internet connections.

Sezmi tested its service in Seattle in 2008, in part because of the region's challenging topography. It also helped that three of the company's managers were based here at the time.

Service in Seattle will start with a basic $4.99 per month plan offering local broadcast channels in high definition, a library of on-demand movies and cable shows, and access to YouTube and other Web video shows.

To use the service, you've got to buy the hardware, including a receiver and a DVR with 1 terabyte of capacity for $150. There are no equipment rental fees.

In other markets, Sezmi offers a premium plan for $19 that includes access to 15 cable channels but not ESPN, Food Network or HGTV. A spokeswoman said the company's working to expand the cable lineup. Sezmi, based in Belmont, Calif., raised $75 million since it was started in 2006.

Speed update

Ookla, the company behind the popular Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net broadband testing services, is now using its massive trove of data to rank Internet service providers.

Ookla's been providing data through its Net Index site but now it's offering more information to help consumers analyze their broadband options, co-founder Mike Apgar said in the announcement.

Apgar led Seattle broadband provider Speakeasy before launching Ookla in 2006. Ookla, which has offices in Seattle and his hometown of Kalispell, Mont., is now handling more than a million tests a day at Speedtest.net.

In the company's initial ISP ranking, Comcast has the fastest download speeds among U.S. residential providers, followed by Charter, Optimum Online, MidContinent Communications and Road Runner, according to Ookla's announcement.

When ranked by upload speeds, the top providers are Surewest Broadband, Verizon Internet Service, AT&T Worldnet, Comcast and Cox.

Reader Alexander noted that Comcast's "PowerBoost" feature gives it an advantage in the speed tests. The feature boosts the download speed of the first 10 megabits of a file, after which the download continues at a slower speed. The speed test captures activity affected by this boost. It's not all bad, though, since PowerBoost makes the connection "feel" faster, Alexander said.

Ookla also is building an index of broadband costs that so far suggests that residential broadband in the U.S. costs an average of $47.32 per month, and $5.06 per megabits per second of download speed.

Based on download speeds, broadband in California costs $4.24 per Mbps compared with $8.80 per Mbps in Idaho and $3.89 per Mbps in Washington, according to the release.

Daptiv bought

A California buyout company is acquiring Daptiv, a Seattle company that provides project and portfolio-management software and services. Terms of the deal with Parallax Capital Partners of Laguna Hills, Calif., weren't disclosed.

A spokeswoman said all Daptiv employees will be retained except for Chief Executive Mark Klebanoff, who is being replaced by John Baldwin, a Parallax partner and executive at Artemis International.

Daptiv was founded in 1997 as eProject. The company has around 90 employees, $20 million in annual sales and more than 500 enterprise customers.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.