In conjunction with Amazon’s Prime Day Sale in Japan they are offering a 10 000 yen discount on the Oasis. That is a significant amount, the equivalent of a $100 discount in the U.S.
When Amazon has released new Kindle models in Japan it has usually been around “back to school” season, about five weeks away. This looks like they are trying to minimize inventory to make room on the shelves for a new model. Has anyone heard anything?
Well, my guess would be Oasis 4. It’s about due for an update. Dark horse candidate would be a color e-ink Kindle.
I’m more inclined towards a color model and perhaps somewhat larger size due to the proclivity of Manga in Japan. In my view, e-ink producers has a huge untapped market there and I’m actually surprised none of the Japanese electronics makers hasn’t tried to tap into that market.
Definitely 100% rumor, but we’ve heard through our supply chain contacts that one of the vendors that has supplied e-ink displays to amazon, has a new very power efficient color e-ink display that would seem almost ideal for a new Oasis at 7.2 inches.
Plus with the newest version of the paperwhite there is very little clear water between the two, especially give the price difference, since for all practical purposes the only thing the Oasis brings are page turn buttons.
OTOH what we’ve heard says late this year, so not imminent .
That’s why I traded my Voyage for a Paperwhite years ago. I was never using the page buttons, didn’t really need the gripping area, so I asked myself why I was putting up with the extra weight.
A new color Oasis might tempt me, however, if it’s truly an improved color e-ink panel. I haven’t been impressed with them so far.
Agreed, especially with the specific use case as an ereader. So far adding color seems to be at the expense of standard black text which looks washed out IMHO compared to say the paperwhite.
OTOH, if you are a big comiXology user, it might be worth the tradeoffs
Aren’t manga mostly B&W? Or are they just not importing/translating the colorful ones to the States?
They mostly are.
And while Japanese people do read manga on computers, actual books are still very common and popular. Just like CDs and DVDs, and I suspect for many of the same reasons.
Those published in pulp magazines (Shonen Jump and similar) are, but younger readers seem to be clamoring for color.
The issue is colouring takes a lot of time. Well, traditionally. Clip Studio, etc. make it very easy to quickly colour artwork, especially manga/comics. To do it well is still quite a bit more work and manga artists are notoriously overworked as it is.
Of course, there’s also the books/volumes being black and white because to print them is much cheaper. Obviously not a problem with digital consumption, and offering black and white, plus colour versions shouldn’t be hard.
As usual with Japan, it will be how strongly people cling onto tradition that determines what happens.