Just weeks after lowering the price of the Kindle e-book reader from $259 to $189, Amazon unveiled a fully revamped Kindle on Wednesday. It’s sleeker, better looking, easier on the eyes — and starts at $139.

This new Kindle, Amazon’s third generation, is smaller by 21 percent, and 15 percent lighter too. It has much improved contrast, 50 percent better than before, answering a significant complaint among dead-tree purists who compared the device’s e-ink screen unfavorably to real paper. It’s available in two colors: graphite and white.

Read the full story on MSNBC

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• Amazon unveils sleek third-generation Kindle (macworld.com)
• Amazon launches a new Kindle, with modest improvements (blogs.consumerreports.org)

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Today Amazon.com announced their new Kindle DX e-book reader. On the front page of their website, Amazon has begun to take pre-orders for their update to the current Kindle DX. The Kindle DX was a larger version of the Kindle II reader which has been very successful.

The new Kindle DX will have a 9.7 inch screen, a miniature keyboard, and wireless access. Not only will it run Kindle e-books from Amazon.com but also third party files including pdf documents. Some of the new features include greater screen contrast, better pdf zooming functions, better font displays, and even social network features.

Read the full story on The Examiner

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• Amazon.com offers new lower-priced Kindle DX (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Target announced it will begin selling online retail giant Amazon.com’s Kindle ereader across all of its 1,740 U.S. retail locations. In late April, Target introduced the Kindle–previously available exclusively via the Amazon digital storefront–to shoppers at its flagship Minneapolis location as well as 102 stores in the south Florida market; the device goes on sale nationwide on June 6, and will retail for $259.

Read more: Target expands Kindle ereader sales nationwide – FierceMobileContent

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Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, plans to introduce the next version of its Kindle electronic-book reader in August, according to two people familiar with its plans.

The device will be thinner and have a more responsive screen with a sharper picture, the people said, who didn’t want to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The new Kindle won’t include a touch screen or color, they said.

Read the full story on BusinessWeek

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Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-reader is getting access to Facebook and Twitter, along with several other enhancements, as part of a software update being sent wirelessly to the devices. Amazon said it has released the software to some Kindle owners and expects to send it to all users in late May.

Source: AP

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• Amazon.com’s Kindle May Soon Be Sold at Target (shoppingblog.com)

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A new report from ChangeWave Research reveals that less than half of the people who own an e-reader would have bought that same e-reader if the iPad was already on the market.

That’s an ugly stat for Amazon, since the Kindle is the undisputed king of the e-reader market, at least today.

Source: Business Insider

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• Kindle, You Are So Dead [Ipad] (gizmodo.com)

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Amazon.com has announced “Kindle for BlackBerry”, an app for select BlackBerrys. The app will enable users to access over 400,000 Kindle books on their phones. This app can be downloaded for free from Amazon.

Just like its online version, this mobile app automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync. You can also create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible mobile device.

The BlackBerry models that support this app include Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Curve 8520, Curve 8900, Storm 9530, Storm 9550 and Tour 9630.

However Kindle for BlackBerry is available to U.S. customers only, at least for now.

Source: TechTree

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• Kindle for BlackBerry becomes available, now with more squinting (mobilecrunch.com)

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In the matchup between the iPad and the Kindle, some say it’s game over for Amazon’s e-Reader. But according to industry watchers, it’s still only the first quarter.

In Amazon’s earnings release, Bezos threw a spotlight on the “millions of people” who own the e-Reader, adding, “When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.”

But when asked about competition from new devices during Amazon’s earnings call, CFO Tom Szkutak would only say, “We believe that readers deserve to have a dedicated device.”

Meanwhile Amazon is not lying idle with its technology. The company is in the process of buying touch-screen technology startup, Touchco, according to reports from The New York Times. The acquisition could mean touch capability in a future generation of the Kindle.

Job openings at Amazon’s hardware division, Lab126, offer further evidence of plans to upgrade the device. More than half of the 50 positions were posted within the past month, while a listing for a “Hardware display manager” reads, “You will know the LCD business and key players in the market.”

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney also sees improvements like color and touch functionality in Kindle’s future, as well as a drop in price. “The price of e-Readers has to come down over time and so far they have,” he says. And despite pressures from the publishing community, Mahaney still sees flexibility in e-Book pricing, wherein Amazon could use profits on bestsellers to slash prices on other books.

Read the full story on CNN Money

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The new e-book pricing level of $12.99-$14.99 agreed to by Amazon recently in a major concession to the power of the big publishing houses is under a grass roots attack by the e-reading public, per “E-Book’s Cost Is Going Up” (NYT 11 Feb 2010). Many committed e-book buyers are balking at this raise from the until-now standard of $9.99 for new issues, showing their displeasure by posting bad reviews & comments on the Amazon & B&N websites, dissing on internet message boards, and returning to their local public libraries for their reading material. It is a battle between the publishing industry’s desire for its (& its authors’) profitability and consumers’ sense of entitlement, fed by the availability of so many other types of free or less expensive divertisement. Industry seems to anticipate that the iPad and its followers will open up a vastly larger audience to e-book purchasing, buyers who will consider a !4.99 price tag a bargain for a $25.00 book, rather than a 33% hike up from the expected $9.99 e-price.

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In a move to possibly trump a major feature of the new Apple iPad, Amazon recently acquired Touchco, which focuses on developing touch-screen technology. This may lead Kindle into an entirely new display system, user friendly for, among other things, reference materials, entertainment functions, and color displays. (NYT 4 Feb 2010).

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