Online retail giant Amazon.com has released an updated version of its Kindle digital book reader, including more storage and faster page turns. The updated version still costs around $US359, and is available on the company’s website. The new Kindle is available for pre-order and will ship only in the US on 24 February.
The new Kindle is “thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life and capable of holding hundreds more books”, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said.
But not everyone is impressed. Amazon shares dropped 1% to $US65.94 after the announcement. Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay told The Age that Amazon is clearly not attempting to move the device into the mainstream.
“Really we don’t see them as having taken the device to the next level,” he says. “We think it’s an incremental step of improvements. They’re advancing very conservatively.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
