It’s been a long time coming – at least it certainly feels that way – but Amazon has finally revealed its latest, upgraded and enhanced Kindle reader. Christened the Kindle third generation by Amazon, but more likely to become known as the Kindle 3, there are a number of obvious improvements.
The new upgrades of the third generation Kindle seem likely to please e-book reader fans. It keeps the same 6” e-ink technology screen, but the display’s contrast has been improved by 50%, which should make reading even better. The speed of page turns, already good for the Kindle 2.0, has been made 20% faster.
The overall size of the reader has been shrunk by 21% and the weight is now only 8.7 ozs – 15% lighter. Battery life s now a month - with the Wi-Fi turned off - and even with the Wi-Fi on, a life of ten days is predicted. Memory capacity has been increased by a factor of 2 to 4 GB, sufficient for around about 3,500 books. So the new Kindle is smaller, lighter, easier to read, has a longer battery life and allows users to carry a small personal library with them wherever they go. What else could you ask for in a mobile electronic device?
For many, a color screen would have been one item on their wish list. Amazon have been dedicating a lot of resource to the development of a color e-ink technology screen - but it is not quite ready for commercial release just at the moment. Possibly this could be incorporated in the next Kindle 4 upgrade. Some users may have liked to see the inclusion of an SD slot for memory expansion. Nevertheless, considering that the memory capacity is now at 4GB, most people won’t suffer too much as a consequence of this.
In addition to the various upgrades, Amazon have adjusted the price downwards and introduced a new Wi-Fi only model for those who don’t anticipate the need for a 3G connection. The Wi-Fi only entry level model is available for just $ 139, the Wi-Fi plus free 3G model sells for $ 189. The new Kindle 3 now comes in graphite, the same as the new DX model, as well as the original white.
Amazon has also opened a dedicated UK Kindle store on their British website. UK consumers will no longer require to have their Kindles shipped across the Atlantic. In the first instance the UK Kindle store will have 400,000 Kindle books to choose from. It seems reasonable to suppose that Amazon may consider opening other dedicated Kindle stores for its other “local” websites in France, Germany etc. at some point in future.
Sales of the Kindle 3 are high. Prospective customers face a wait of around 4 weeks at the moment before their Kindles can be shipped. It may be that all the reports of the Kindle reader’s demise, brought about by the release of Apple’s iPad, were very premature. The new upgrades, the lower prices and the fact that there is no monthly payment for connectivity, will be very appealing to many consumers. It looks like the launch of the Kindle 3 may come as a timely reminder of just how influential Amazon are, and will continue to be in the future, in the world of books in general - and digital books in particular
