Today Amazon put an end to months of rumors, and announced two new versions of its 6″ Kindle.
The $189 model
The big news, however, is a new $139 model
I can say from experience that unless you spend a lot of time away from your home wireless network, the 3G on the Kindle is more of a luxury than a necessity. I’ll personally probably buy a Wi-Fi model and gift my Kindle 2 to a family member.
Both versions come in black or white, similar to the refreshed DX model.
These price points put the Kindle $10 under similar offerings from Barnes & Noble’s Nook device. Will B&N respond with another price cut? Can it afford to?
And now the bad news. Although you can pre-order either model immediately, Amazon won’t start shipping them until August 27th. It looks like the huge uptick in Kindle sales the last few months wiped out their inventory earlier than the retailer anticipated.
By Stephen Taylor July 29, 2010 - 3:49 PM
The beauty of the 3G, especially with the new webkit based browser, is being able to go online anytime – anywhere – and never having an extra charge, contract, etc. I’ve found the 3G on the Kindle 2 to be incredibly useful far off the beaten path (in the woods, directions, etc.) so 3G can be quite valuable. It can be incredibly cool to go online in the middle-of-”nowhere” and to be able to look things up and perhaps even download a book…
By Chris Walters July 30, 2010 - 8:42 AM
@Stephen Taylor:
Yeah, I definitely think some people would be able to take advantage of 3G. For my lifestyle, though, it’s a rarity that I’m actually away from home when I want another book–and in those moments I’ve got Kindle on my phone (where I’m already paying for 3G) so I can buy the book that way.