Amazon Kindle News

Amazon is now offering the Kindle Paperwhite (and the Fire HD tablet) in China. The Paperwhite (with its 1024x768 high contrast front-lit E Ink panel) costs 849 yuan (about $135). I assume this is the Wi-Fi model which costs $139 in the US (or $119 with ads).

Amazon released a software update for the Kindle Touch, and they now also offer it for sale again, but only the Wi-Fi model. It costs $99 with ads and $139 without ads. The Kindle Paperwhite costs $119 with ads and $139 without ads, the same price as the Touch without ads. The Kindle paperwhite offers several advantages (including higher resolution and front-light), but the Touch has one advantage - it had speakers and support for audio books.

Amazon filed a new patent that describes a new simple e-reader device that is basically just a screen. Power and processing are both received wirelessly via a different device. Basically this describes a portable display used for e-reading. It's an interesting idea, although I'm not sure what are the real advantages compared to current e-readers (which are already very small and cheap). Perhaps this device could use a flexible/rollable display as it won't need any other parts...

Source: T3

Digitimes says that Amazon shipped around 750,000 E Ink kindles in January 2013 and 420,000 in February. They expect shipments to drop to only 20,000 in March and April.

E Ink says that the drop in sales in January and February was expected as this is a slow season. Sales should pick up in Q2 and Q3. E-reader shipments though are expected to slow in 2013 due to increased demand for tablets.

We're happy and proud to announce that after over a year in development, our second Kindle software title has been released. Utility Kit is a collection of must-have applications for your Kindle, which can enhance your reading experience and make your life easier. It includes seven different applications:

• Calculator
• Stopwatch
• Countdown timer
• World clocks
• Calendar
• Units conversion
• Notepad

IHS iSupply says that e-reader shipments in 2012 will reach 14.9 million units, down 36% from 2011 (23.2 million). Shipments are expected to continue and fall to 10.9 million in 2013, and only 7.1 million in 2016. iSupply say that the rapid growth and collapse of the e-reader market is "virtually unheard of", and is explained by the success of the multi-function tablets.

The pressure to keep costs down will be extreme and e-reader makers are expected to continue to sell devices at cost or even at a loss. Amazon (and B&N) has a large advantage here because they can still earn from selling e-books. Other makers will have to find different business models (for example txtr hopes to get mobile telecom subsidiaries for its $13 Beagle reader).

E Ink displays can actually retain an image for years without power. Back in 2011 E Ink sent me a nice photo frame with an E Ink display showing a photo - and one year later and the image still hasn't changed at all. There's no battery or power source there. Now our sister site E-Ink-Info is running a cool contest - offering two e-readers to those who come up with the best application ideas for this feature.

Besides making some nice B&W photo frames - what cool things can be done with a display that can stay persistent for such long times without a power source? For example gadgets that only need to change the display once a day. Just hop over to E-Ink-Info and post a comment with your idea and e-mail address (or send us the e-mail address in private). We'll choose the two best ideas, and award them with new e-readers (either a Kindle paperwhite or a Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight). This content is open for everyone. E Ink, who were kind enough to give away the two e-readers, will ship them worldwide. We'll choose the new winners on December 11th.