Amazon recasts Kindle battery life after Barnes & Noble claims
Did Amazon magically change the battery life of the Kindle? Not really. It's all about the assumptions included in calculating battery life for e-readers and making claims on them.
Update: Did Amazon magically change the battery life of the Kindle? Not really. It's all about the assumptions included in calculating battery life for e-readers and making claims on them.
Overnight it appeared that Amazon had some pretty strong magic at their disposal because they've bumped up the battery life of every single Kindle out there from one to two months by doing ... nothing.
Amazon has long claimed in ads that the latest-generation Kindle has a battery life of one month. However, following the launch of Barnes & Noble's new Nook ebook reader, which has a battery life of two months (B&N say it has the 'longest battery life of any eReader'), Amazon has now upped the Kindle battery life to the same two months ... all without touching the battery or the software.
What happened? Barnes & Noble assumes you'll read your Nook a half hour a day. The previous assumption by most e-reader companies was that you'd read one hour a day.
So what's going on here? Bottom line, it's a 'playing with the numbers' game. All Amazon has done here is changed the way that it measures typical usage to match what Barnes & Noble did. Having extensively used a Kindle I'd say that the claim of one month battery life was pretty close to the mark and that two months, even with wireless switched off, is drifting off into fantasy land. But that all depends on what your definition of extensively is.
This knee-jerk reaction goes to show how threatened Amazon feels by B&N's new Nook. And if Amazon isn't threatened it's clear the competition is intense.
Whether
Amazon
will
be
able
to
use
its
experience
in
China
to
combat
Reliance's
exhaustive
digital
backbone
and
web,
which
connects
millions
of
India's
small
grocery
shops,
will
...
The
e-commerce
giant
will
withdraw
its
domestic
marketplace
from
China
in
July
to
focus
on
its
other
profitable
businesses
within
the
country,
according
to
a
report.
...
The
two
futuristic
retail
experiences
offer
a
contrast
in
how
advanced
tech
can
be
used
to
prepare
beverages
on
the
spot
as
well
as
eliminate
the
scourge
of
the
checkout
line.
But
humans
...
With
cloud
market
players
Alibaba
and
Google
ramping
up
their
regional
data
centre
footprint,
Amazon
Web
Services
is
relying
on
the
"breadth
and
depth"
of
its
service
offerings
and
...
Join Discussion