Oprah Endorses Amazon's Kindle: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer October 27, 2008

Dan Beldy, Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures told me at lunch that he is thinking about putting together a consortium to lease their own fighter jet so they can properly defend themselves against Google's recently acquired German-made sub-sonic bomber. Google's Eric Schmidt is a pilot, but Dan used to fly F/A-18 Hornets for the Navy.

Dave Westin, President of ABC News, sent a company wide email notifying employees of drastic budget cuts. ABC News, which is trying to limit expenses asked that executives take coach flights, stay in cheaper hotels, while canceling all print subscriptions. tightening convention attendance policy and limiting business lunches. Westin also canceled the company's holiday party.

Netflix announced that it will finally launch "Watch Instantly" for Macs. The streaming movie service, to be made available via Microsoft's Silverlight, will be available by the end of the year. The service has been available to Windows and Linux users for nearly 2 years.

Oprah named Amazon's Kindle as her "favorite new gadget." Looking to build off the endorsement, Amazon will offer a $50 rebate to users who enter the code "OPRAHWINFREY" at checkout. The rebate will bring the cost of the Kindle to $359, but the big question is whether or not this will bring Kindle to the mainstream.

Cox is expected to announce the launch of a cell phone network today. Cox plans on building the network in areas where it provide cable service and partnering with Sprint in other areas. The company spent $500 million on wireless capacity and hopes to have it available commercially in the second half of 2009.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at [e-mail]

Comments

[toocoldout]

I purchased one as soon as I saw the Oprah show. I think it's great. Saves paper and it's good for the economy for people to keep buying stuff.

[invisible]

I've actually wanted a Kindle for a minute. But I'm sorry, with things as tight as they are these days, ARE THEY NUTS?!?!? I'd endorse it too if I had Oprah-Dough. Drop the price on that thing already. To borrow the words of one of the irritating Oprah proteges.... GET REEEEAL!!!

[Kishadawn]

This was actually a pretty smart endorsement.

I own the Kindle. I didn't buy it to listen to music, or to access the internet, or keep a calender. I bought it to read my books.

I balked a bit about the price when I first started researching. I don't balk anymore. I save 20-30% on books in the electronic format. There are also a number of sites that I download for free. It's paid for itself in the first four months I've owned it.

I especially like the fact that I can buy books and get them instantly whenever I want. I used to not make the bookstore or library very frequently and found myself picking out 10 books at a time in a rush. Now I can find a book whenever or wherever I want and read a portion of it before I buy it. I probably read more now than I used to and that's saying a lot.

I own an Ipod, and a blackberry, etc. and the Kindle is my favorite electronic :).

I know I'm not Oprah :), but I figure my opinion has to mean something, I mean I'm the everyday American working Josephine!

[PKSSK]

I have to say, Oprah's endorsments are becoming nausiating, as they serve to promote the profits of the corp elite. Does she realize what is going on with the world's economy, does she realize most of the middle class is falling into the lower class and total poverty. Maybe if she endorsed a non-fiction book that helped to educate our society on the reality of the world's economic crisis, which is directly associated with the US culture of excessive materialism and need for wealth that promotes greed and crime, instead of endorsing fictional books/novels. Enough Oprah!!! Did you know the corporation you endorsed today, Amazon, displayed a halloween mask of your endorsed presidential candidate in the category of terrorist on their website today. Wake Up Oprah and do something good for the country instead of selling corp products that you like and make them larger profits!!!

[toocoldout]

Oh my, some of your folks are a real drag. Losen up & enjoy life.

[Melissa]

Oprah, just like her endorsements, amuse me. She really is in love with herself.

[NeoStar9]

Yes! I'm happy because if the Kindle starts selling like crazy, and almost everything Oprah endorses does, then that will mean there is a chance Amazon will most likely bring the price down to get even more sales. I've wanted to get a Kindle for a while now but the price has always stopped me. Thank you Oprah.

[DallasFrankie]

No thanks, Oprah. At least I'll still have my good old-fashioned paper books when your Kindle runs out of power, or suffers a glitch or drops on the floor and breaks.

[DixieMelody]

Hey, Oprah!

Newsflash!

We're hurting out here in the real world.

I would love to have a Kindle, but $359 AFTER REBATE?!?! plus $10 for every book downloaded AND a monthly fee to have questions answered?

Your rhapsodizing about the Kindle on your show and how everyone should have one is kind of like showing and describing food to starving people that they will never be able to have.

[Kishadawn]

There are people out there who are buying 399 dollar Ipods and I-Phones and no one says a blink about it.

I think that if they built these things in a larger format it would save our school systems millions of dollars in funds for paper books. They could also replace books in a school system all at once without as much work to do them. Colleges require laptops at 2k a pop these days, I'd gladly pay 400 bucks for all my text books to be in one place. My kindle reads like paper.

Think about how many trees it saves....

I don't pay a monthly fee for wireless access or for anything. I paid for the books and now they are always available to me as long as I own the Kindle.

The thing

[magnolialiberal]

The problem is, will this survive the "next big thing" to be developed? Will there be tech support and parts for breakdowns and glitches? It would be good to move from the paper format, but I do not yet see this as sustainable,you give these to kids, and a certain percentage will just dunk them in water to get out of homework.

I would love to have something like this myself, but the price needs to be about half of what it is now to approach affordable for me. Looked at the economy lately? And I down school systems are going to have the money any time soon to invest in this new format.