The New Amazon Kindle Third Generation Is Finally Released

It’s been a long time coming – at least it certainly feels that way – but Amazon has at last revealed its new, upgraded and enhanced Kindle reader. Dubbed the third generation Kindle by Amazon, there are a variety of improvements.

The new features of the Kindle 3 seem likely to press all the right buttons for e-book reader fans. It keeps the same 6” e-ink technology screen, but the display’s contrast has been improved by 50%, which should make reading even better. The speed of page turns, already good for the Kindle 2.0, has been made 20% faster.

The overall size of the reader has been shrunk by 21% and the weight is now only 8.7 ozs – a 15% reduction. Battery life with the Wi-Fi off is now a month, and even with Wi-Fi turned on a ten day life is expected. Memory has been doubled to 4 GB, enough for approximately 3,500 books. So the new Kindle is smaller, lighter, easier to read, has a longer battery life and allows users to carry a small personal library with them wherever they go. What more could you want from a mobile reader?

Well, a color screen would have been on many people’s wish lists. However, whilst Amazon have been working on a color e-ink technology display, it simply isn’t ready for commercial release at this time. This may perhaps be available in time for the next upgrade. Some users may have liked to see the inclusion of an SD slot for memory expansion. Even so, with the new increased 4GB of memory, most people won’t suffer too greatly.

As well as all the upgrades, Amazon have adjusted the price downwards and introduced a new Wi-Fi only Kindle for customers who don’t feel the need for a 3G connection. The Wi-Fi only entry level model is available for just $ 139, the Wi-Fi plus free 3G model sells for $ 189. The new Kindle 3 is also available in graphite, just like the new DX model, in addition to the original white.

Amazon has also launched a dedicated UK Kindle store on their British website. UK consumers will no longer require to have their Kindles shipped from the States. To begin with the UK Kindle store will have 400,000 Kindle books to choose from. It seems reasonable to suppose that Amazon may consider opening other dedicated Kindle stores for its other “local” websites in France, Germany etc. in the future.

Kindle 3 sales are strong. Potential customers currently face a wait of around about 4 weeks before their readers are shipped. It may be that all the reports of the Kindle reader’s demise, brought about by the release of Apple’s iPad, were very premature. The new upgrades, the lower prices and the fact that there is no monthly payment for connectivity, will be very appealing to many consumers. It looks as though the launch of the third generation Kindle may serve as a timely reminder of just how influential Amazon are, and will continue to be, in the world of books in general and e-books in particular