Amazon puts the kibosh on Kindle 2.0 rumors

Well, so much for those rumors of a thinner, cheaper, less 80s-hot Kindle coming soon -- Amazon spokesman Craig Berman told the New York Times today that there's nothing in store for this year, and that a new version won't happen before "sometime next year at the earliest." So much for that, unless there's some huge surprise in store -- looks like all you college kids are going to end up killing some trees this year after all.

[Rob @ Aug 28th 2008 4:16PM]

Well, what did you expect? No company is going to come out and say out loud "yes, we're discontinuing our current model because we're about to release a new one real soon." That'd only ruin their sales and have the company stuck with "old" models they'd be forced to sell at a clearance discount. If Amazon acts like Sony, then yes, they'd have something real soon.

[Anthony @ Aug 28th 2008 4:31PM]

No way! Once I hear they're discontinuing Kindle 1 I'll be sure to pick up a 1989-style e-dictionary. Retrostyle. That's what these are, right?

[RD. @ Aug 28th 2008 4:17PM]

Guess I'm buying an Iliad.

[LordJohnWhorfin @ Aug 28th 2008 5:06PM]

The iliad is really nice, but it costs more than twice as much!

[weg @ Aug 28th 2008 5:37PM]

I don't care so much for the price, but the battery life of this thing is a real problem. It lasts for only 12 hours, while the Sony Reader and the Kindle last for 7000 page turns. Shutting the iLiad off when you don't use it for some time is not a viable solution, since it takes 45 seconds to boot. In the iRex discussion forum, the iLiad engineers admitted that this problem can't be fixed with a firmware update, since it's a hardware design flaw that makes the implementation of a sleep mode impossible. Otherwise I'd have bought one immediately, since the iLiad displays all academic papers that I tried without problems, and the feature to be able to annotate them is just amazing. (If you're not an academic, of course, the iLiad is probably not of much use to you, since it doesn't support non-DRMed books, so you can't buy books from Amazon or the Sony-store and read them on the iLiad.)

[Plothole @ Aug 29th 2008 2:08AM]

@Weg

I think you meant it doesn't support "DRMed" booked. However it actually does do SecureMobi. These can't be purchased from the Sony or Amazon store (each of which having a proprietary DRM that only works with their specific devices), but they can several others such as fictionwise and mobipocket. (Plus some libraries support the format.)

[sinai @ Aug 28th 2008 4:24PM]

you can't wait 3 months, nilay?

[Ian @ Aug 28th 2008 4:46PM]

Why don't they just come clean and have a real "sale" on Kindle (1)? AT a nicely discounted price. Nobody in his/her right mind would buy the exisiting model at full price now.

[LordJohnWhorfin @ Aug 28th 2008 5:06PM]

They are having a nice sale. You can pick up the current Kindle for $290 with the VISACARD coupon code.

[Neal and Bob @ Aug 28th 2008 6:36PM]

I agree LordJohn-- they're having a great deal right now and I ordered my kindle two days ago effectively only paying $259.00 by the time all is said and done (a $70 instant discount by signing up for their Amazon Visa card and another $30 credited to my first statement as well). I had been on the fence about getting one since they came out, but the recent promotion finally pushed me over and I don't feel cheated at all. It's a great bargain for a great device. Sure it doesn't look the coolest, but it's extremely functional with a great wireless never-have-to-sync feature built-in, letting me download a fresh read anywhere, and besides... when was the last time a true bookworm cared if he was cool or not? I'm not in the reading game to pick up chicks, I'm in it to keep my mind sharp and with the recent promotion it was too sweet of a deal to pass up.

[chefgon_ign @ Aug 28th 2008 4:42PM]

I think that the Kindle is a really cool device, but until they make it significantly less ugly there's no way I'm going to drop that much cash on one. It's ridiculous how horrible it looks.

[ereader @ Aug 28th 2008 5:23PM]

Still, no clue how they managed to choose the old, 4-color screen for the original Kindle, when Sony Reader PRS-505 was already using 8-color Vizplex. That level of idiocy combined with a higher price made Kindle 1.0 a total "no go" for me.

[Richard @ Aug 28th 2008 4:56PM]

Way to give the people what they want Amazon. Kindle V2 should have been ready to go for the anniversary of the first one's release.

[Mike_NYC @ Aug 28th 2008 5:05PM]

Isn't it possible he's lying? Isn't in his interest to lie? If he doesn't try to kill the rumor, then sales of the 1.0 model drop. Nobody wants that. Case in point, me; I am the target market for a device like this. I already own several ebooks from my favorite sci-fi publisher that i read on my laptop. I buy several of them, plus several more "normal"; ie NY Times bestsellers; and a few more other random books every year. I love new gadgets, and am the guy my friends turn to with their technology questions; a EE. So why don't I own one yet? I try to avoid buying 1.0 products, and am waiting for the 2.0. If there is any chance for someone like me to buy one, then he HAS to say that. Otherwise, we're just waiting for 2.0 which will never come if enough folks don't buy 1.0.

[James Ison @ Aug 28th 2008 5:41PM]

It's the EXACT same Viziplex screen. The difference is that sonly uses an 8 color controller and Kindle uses a 4 color controller.

[Mike @ Aug 28th 2008 5:50PM]

What's up with them showing the NY Times on that thing? Nobody READS the NY Times anymore, it's just a cheap source of paper for lining one's bird cage.

[Plothole @ Aug 29th 2008 2:20AM]

Also the fact that most ebook manufactures had chosen to stay with the old chip suggests that there must have been a logical reason for this.

[ereader @ Sep 2nd 2008 1:59PM]

Ouch! Then it's even worse: making consumers pay for the latest screen, but not using it as intended? Stupidity power 2.

[Bill @ Aug 28th 2008 8:04PM]

Cutting $100 off the price with the current credit card promo tells us they are indeed clearing stock in anticipation of a new model, probably ready just in time for the holidays on the anniversary of the original introduction.

[diode3diode @ Aug 28th 2008 8:20PM]

If the V2 has the same screen dimensions as the Iliad then I would definitely think about maybe getting one. Of course only if it had multi-touch and in color.

[Plothole @ Aug 29th 2008 1:27AM]

Color eInk is still ways off. I wouldn't expect it to become available until late '09 at the earliest.

What benefit would there be to having multitouch on a book reader?

[eddy @ Aug 28th 2008 8:39PM]

Next year? Eh, I can wait. Gives me time to finish reading the supply of books I currently have before I sell them off on Half.com.

[Tagbert @ Aug 29th 2008 11:07AM]

Don't hold your breath on color e-ink. What exists is still in the labs. The color range is poor. The resolution is less. The redraw speed is very slow.

[Plothole @ Aug 29th 2008 8:39PM]

@Tagbert

From what I've seen, the refresh rate of color eInk isn't noticeably different from the B&W version. Perhaps you're thinking of the Flepia, which is often mistaken for using color eInk? (in fact it's a "bi-stable"LCD, which refreshes much slower than eInk)

[Tagbert @ Aug 30th 2008 11:32PM]

@Plothole

You could be right. I thought that the color ones had to refresh multiple times to flip each color. Maybe not.

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 28th 2008 8:40PM]

Pity. V1 seems so rough around the edges, I've played around with one before, that I won't buy a Kindle until a V2 comes out. That said why would they say yah, we've got a new one on the way and kill all sales. So who knows. I just wish that they would work with ereader.com to get books to be compatible with it. I have a moderately sized library of their e-books. It would be nice If I could transfer them to the Kindle.

[adobochicken @ Aug 29th 2008 1:11AM]

shame I was ready to spend for Kindle 2.0 this year.

[Bob @ Sep 8th 2008 9:49AM]

I have a simple question for you folks. I am most interested in uploading my doc files from Microsoft Office. The Kindle doesn't work because the firewall where I work somehow screws things up, so KIndle is out. Have any of you found a good way to convert/upload attachments, Word docs, Excel, etc., and which device would you purchase?

[lacey @ Sep 9th 2008 7:18AM]

15 minutes ago, I was all sorts of gungho about buying a kindle v1.
However, reading this, I've realized they could sweeten a kindle WAYYY more.
Where's apple to pick up amazon's slack?
iRead anyone?

Features:
Full 3g access, or whatever the heck iPhones are running these days.
some sort of browser, probably something like safari.
full launguage tools, including, but not limited to: thesaurus, dictionary, translator, encyclopedia.
word processor
music/picture/video storage, much like an ipod.
perhaps a touch screen + stylus?
and that oh-so-wonderful read anywhere you want feature that kindle has now.

OH, WHO AM I KIDDING? THAT'S CALLED A TABLET PC!

question, why do you need color when you're reading a book?
it's all black and white...
however, book covers would be a lot more attractive.