Amazon Kindle listed as 'temporarily out of stock,' Nook and Sony Reader smile coyly
By Ross Miller 
posted July 27th 2010 7:42PM
posted July 27th 2010 7:42PM
posted July 27th 2010 7:42PM
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companys do that if theirs somtjing wrong with it... But I love my kindle and my pre
Looks like people are buying it a lot these days huh?
@statickeith Never mind what I said
"We've pinged Amazon and will let you know what we hear."
64 bytes from 123.45.678.910: icmp_seq=6 ttl=48 time=99.068 ms?
@Psyclotr0n
No, just no...
Its to early for math. August still isnt here yet...
Kindle 3?
@TheMichaelJackson Not likely. More like struggling to meet their Target orders, cause you know, my local Target is not sold out. Yet.
@TheMichaelJackson It's either a refresh or it's just a demand spike as people gear up for August vacations. I'd be more inclined to guess the latter.
I@TheMichaelJackson I hope not. I'm selling my kindle on craigslist and I'd hate for a new one to come out, making mine worth a lot less.
@TheMichaelJackson It has been widely rumoured that the next generation with sharper contrast and faster response is due mid August. They already have been clearing out stock by selling new stock as "refurb" at fire sale prices lately. why amazon is apologizing I have no idea. they probably under estimated the demand and cleared out too early. But i think that's good - nobody wants to be obsolete stuff.
@cfishy read the article again.
"In the past, CEO Jeff Bezos and company have written us apology notes...This time...nary a word".
I think "Kindle 3" is on the way.
But what will they actually call it? "Kindle 3G Latest Generation" is not as descriptive as it sounds.
It's a dying breed. Cheaper tablets (possibly Android ones) will render the Kindle useless.
@s2m0 The only thing that will render the Kindle 2/DX useless is a color e-ink screen because anybody who reads more than a blog or a chapter of Twilight knows that an e-ink screen is a must for the eyes.
@s2m0
yes we all know mutil media tablets are getting cheaper , and personally i can wait till there is a good meego one with a nice high def screen , but all lcd , oled and even super amoled screen still suffer from not being great in sunlight or have glare and being hard on eyes for long term use.
thats why there is still a small market for e-ink readers (but they are in danger from tablets for sure), need to keep improving the contrast on them and bring the price down even lower and hopefully bring out good colour e-ink readers soon (i want my comic book reader !)
@s2m0
I don't agree with that. I can read the kindle for as long as I want, but I couldnt do that with my friends iPad. It hurt my eyes after about an hour or two of reading
@s2m0 I doubt that, e-ink is targeted at a vastly different market then tablets. If you want to read books you go with e-ink, if you want to watch videos, listen to music, play some simple games and perhaps read a little then you go with a tablet. And then there's battery life but thats a whole different ball of wax.
@Donnie You made it an hour?
I couldn't read more than about 15 minutes.
I have some minor astigmatism and I really think it might make it harder for me to read on LCD than most people.
Marketing ruse to boost demand?
@GBot Not sure that makes sense, since the sales tripled after they dropped the price. Either cant keep up with demand, or replacing the screens with the higher res screen as on the DX???
@GBot
That wouldn't make much sense, so I'm guessing not.
Cause Foxconn is busy with iPads and iPhones.
For $40 more than a wi-fi nook I wouldn't say it has a price advantage. Especially when the nook is an Android device with an LCD that has been rooted and has an active development community. http://nookdevs.com/Main_Page
For $40 more than a wi-fi nook I wouldn't say it has a price advantage. Especially when the nook is an Android device with an LCD that has been rooted and has an active development community. http://nookdevs.com/Main_Page
@fischju Okay, so this harkens back to the original concept/question. Just what are you buying either a Nook or a Kindle for? If it's just for reading then the Kindle wins with its free 3G service and free translation service from PDF's etc. to AZW with the USB connection. Not to mention name recognition and customer satisfaction. If you are talking about doing a multitude of things, then yes, the Nook has it. For me, it's about reading a book, hence I am in Amazon's camp on this one.
@LDD One short thing though, I would love to be able to borrow books from the library. Any hack for that would be wonderful.
@LDD What use is the 3G service really? For reading books, who has these extreme overwhelming urges to buy something while out somewhere that justifies the cost?
And who actually uses that PDF to AWZ? Everybody I know uses Calibre, the miracle converter. And the nook has better format support. Epub, PDF, PDB, and a mediocre (retail) and great (rooted) music player. With a MicroSD card slot for expandable memory and a much sexier design, there are very few ways in which the nook (wi-fi or 3G) loses to the Kindle.
Seriously, Calibre. Every format, including cbr/cbz/other archived image to epub/just about anything else.
@fischju Fis, I've used Calibre and although I like it a lot on my Mac, I have had some issues with its formatting. First with Stanza and now on the Kindle. In regards to the PDF issue, I don't know what it's like on the Nook, but on the Kindle, the PDF's are almost unreadable. The conversion to .AZW enables you to increase and decrease the font size. I don't know if this is available also on the Nook. In regards to the download issue, I would have to respectfully disagree with you there. I am actually going to buy an iPad eventually, but it must have 3G and Wireless access. Wifi is taken for granted on Engadget, but there are places out in the country where it is not available. If I'm hiking and I want to download a book, I think the 3G service would come in handy (granted if reception allows obviously :). ).
@fischju
The vast majority of kindle users could care less if it can or can't be rooted or hacked. Your arguments are valid, but look at the target market, they could care less about those things. Your argument is the same as Android vs iOS. Android is more versatile, but people are going to go with whats popular. In this case, the kindle wins.
And the free 3G is more useful than you think. Don't bash it until you've tried it.
@LDD My wife borrows tons of books from the library with her Nook. no hack required.
They realize that they have no chance of beating the iPad so amazon gave up and discontinued the kindle
If you truly believe that, you sir are an idiot and need to have your internet tubes tied. You must also never breed...
@rocker182 The Kindle isn't going to beat the iPad because the Kindle isn't competing with the iPad. The Kindle is an e-reader, and the iPad is a tablet. Apple pretends that it's an e-reader also, but it only serves as a decent one if you don't actually like reading very much.
@Benjamin I love Apple and Ben, I couldn't agree more with your comments.
@Benjamin I "read a lot" and use an ipad.
I like it because all of my B&N, ereader and kindle books are available on one device. And all three essentially have one-click downloads that makes books far easier to download then on any ereader I have used in the past.
The only downside is my 8yo and 4 yo constantly try to take it away from me to play games on. Big mistake to ever show them how to use it. They don't want to use the desktop computer anymore.
Now that Amazon has cleared out it's old stock how much longer do you think we have to wait for the Kindle 3 announcement?
I'm betting on early August but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Slow news day, huh Engadget?
I suspect they're getting ready to launch a new model with the new pearl e-ink screen and a dark graphite case, that or a Kindle 3.
@Carld Yes, Yes and Yes.
@Carld
If it's true I'll be purchasing a Kindle when it's refreshed!
But will it be the same price.... and will it blenf?
Sorry blend
I just bought a kindle at Target this afternoon....I think Amazon will be okay guys.
I bought one this weekend. What a nice product. I did hack it but reverted it back as I saw no point to hacking. I really like the device for the simple reason that I like to read books. I thought about an iPad, but I would be too easily distracted with one to read a book from it. In addition, the Kindle is a lot lighter.
Hopefully if they are coming out with Kindle3, I will be allowed to upgrade, but knowing me, it's just a purchasing spike. If you like reading, I strongly recommend this device. It is still a game changer.
It's mildly amusing that tech sites still refer to the Kindle as the price champ. $189 for the 3G only Kindle, while the Nook offers 3G AND wi-fi for only $199. Wi-fi only Nook? $149. Someone please explain.
@GeorgeAnthony Amazon is the price champ among all eReaders anyone would wan't to use.
"Initiate plan Wii" -Jeff Bezos
Last time they were out of stock following a price decrease, it signalled the eminent introduction of a the Kindle 2. So maybe it's a new one. But why does the web site still say it's the #1 item in Electronics (updated hourly no less). How can it be outselling the DX if it's not available. This shows the unreliability of the sales rankings.
@Bic101 You can still purchase it even if it is out of stock so it still may be outselling the DX
why would they be smiling about the fact that their competitors product has a higher demand than theirs?
Why the fuck are you implying that this is a bad thing for Amazon? I work for Amazon and I know that the Kindles have been selling like hotcakes.
this is a GOOD thing, Engadget. God damn, but what do you guys know ...