Amazon Kindle listed as 'temporarily out of stock,' Nook and Sony Reader smile coyly

Amazon's Kindle may have the price advantage when it comes to its e-reading competitors, but right now it's sorely lacking in the availability department. Looks like the device is out of commission and has been for at least 24 hours as of this writing. In the past, CEO Jeff Bezos and company have written us apology notes and / or provided a timeframe for its return. This time, however, we're left with nothing but a bold red "Temporarily out of stock" notice and nary a word on when that sales restriction might lift. Not to worry, though: if you're really jonesing, the Graphite Kindle DX is still available and shipping immediately. We've pinged Amazon and will let you know what we hear.

[JohnVKaravitis Posted Jul 27th 2010 10:48PM]

John V. Karavitis I know that there are a number of e-readers out there, and everyone has his favorite, for personal reasons. I'm currently using the Entourage Edge. It's got a lot of negative, but since Plastic Logic's Que isn't available to the general public, I went with what I thought would be good for me. (The Kindle's screen is just TOO SMALL!) It's as heavy as a cinderblock, somewhat klunky, and goes through battery life like a drunk on a weekend bender. But it displays pdf and epub files just great, and I can read anywhere I want. Eventually we'll see these things come out with color displays, and after that, they'll just have very thin tablet PCs that will also work as e-readers. John V. Karavitis

[MsCG1 Posted Jul 28th 2010 10:42AM]

I'm sure both BN and especially Sony would love to sell out of their products due to high demand. When the iPad was sold out, this was worthy of an office victory party for Engadget. Kindle is sold out, it's gloom and doom.

If this were happening around the holiday season, then yes, Amazon would have cause for concern. But approaching August, and especially when the Kindle is plenty available in local Target stores, I'm sure Amazon isn't losing any sleep over it.

That said, I have (and love) an original flavor 3G Nook, I heavily researched and chose a Nook over a Kindle, and it does everything a Kindle can do and more. But I want all eReaders to succeed, because more choice is better for the consumer.

[ZeroCorpse Posted Jul 28th 2010 12:28PM]

I had a Kindle. I liked the Kindle. It was a great device.

Now I have a Nook. I love the Nook. It's like a Kindle, but they improved every area that needed improvement:
* user-replaceable battery ($30 retail purchase)
* user-upgradable storage (MicroSD)
* customizable back panel (change colors)
* ePub format (fast becoming the standard for eBooks)
* Better PDF handling and formatting
* eReader format (a second standard in the business)
* WiFi for faster searching, browsing, etc.
* FREE COFFEE if you show B&N your Nook.
* Book lending
* Can get books from the local library (ePub format!)
* No ugly buttons/keyboard
* Swipe to turn pages (optional)

...and so on. I like the Nook a lot. I don't dislike the Kindle, but for me the Nook has become the better choice.