Amazon introduces $139 Kindle. Cheap -- but is it fun?

Amazon.com has introduced a Kindle for $139. The most inexpensive e-reader offered by the online retailer, which is Wi-Fi only, will ship Aug. 27. A $189 model, also available next month, will be equipped with 3G.

Only last month, the cheapest Kindle e-reader listed for $259.

The new Kindle will have the same reading area, but the body of the device will be smaller and lighter. The screen is sharper, and Amazon.com boasts that downloading will be so fast that you will be able to "think of a book and start reading it in 60 seconds." 

Last week, Amazon.com announced that sales of Kindle ebooks on its website had outpaced hardcover sales. 

Amazon.com is emphasizing its connection to readers. In its announcement of the new generation of Kindles, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos writes, "Reading is important. Reading is why we build Kindles."

That's a not-so-veiled reference to Apple, whose iPad has an e-reader -- and video streaming, email, animated comics, photo sharing games and a myriad of other interactive applications. With all those features, Apple's iPad is far more expensive -- its Wi-Fi only version is $499, and 3G goes up to $830.

At Bloomberg, Joseph Galante writes, "Amazon.com wants to ensure that it’s not left behind as consumers embrace digital books on a mass scale." The real question may be whether consumers who want digital books want to read them on devices like the iPad, which serve many purposes, or on stand-alone e-reading devices.

The new Kindle is priced to compete with stand-alone e-readers. Its price is below Barnes & Noble's Nook, Borders' Kobo and Sony's pocket e-reader, all of which are $149. With its enviable, prominent place in the nation's largest online bookstore, the Kindle may be positioned to push these e-readers out of the marketplace.

-- Carolyn Kellogg
twitter.com/paperhaus

Photo: Amazon.com / Handout

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Comments

[Paul Espinoza]

Microsoft, can you do this for $99.

That's for me. I could care less if it's fun: Is it functional.

[A Mom]

If you are a serious reader, there is no better experience than a Kindle. I've owned one since 2008...and couldn't be happier. This new price point is amazing - but I don't regret spending over $300 for mine two years ago, the product is just that good.

Yes, the Kindle is functional. It is also fun! Very very fun!

[alwaysbusy]

It's funny...my mom and I used to share books. Now she has a Kindle and does love it, but we don't have the joy of sharing our book experience anymore unless I fork out $139 plus dollars. I could buy 15 books for that price and share them equally e-reader resistant friends.

[John]

If you are a serious reader, there is no better experience than reading an actual book.

[Jcuenca]

I love my Ipad

[violet4ever]

I love my Kindle 2 but I do hope they come up with better ways to share books other than the all or nothing approach they currently have. For alwaysbusy - the Kindle software would let you read your mom's books if the software is registered to her account.

Most of what I read is not anything other family members are particularly interested in so I buy almost all of my books as ebooks now. And I am sorta drooling over the new Kindle's features. I want one. :) If there weren't two colors to choose between I think I would have preordered it already.

[Bruce Oksol]

The real story here: according to Amazon, eBooks outsold hardcovers. It's just a matter of time before brick-and-mortar book stores are gone. Most likely we will see the "birth" of coffee shops/cyber cafes with extensive libraries, rather than book stores with coffee shops in the future.

That is very, very scary for publishers and authors. I'm an avid reader, own an iPad, and have not yet downloaded an eBook.

I find my books at public library sales, remaindered shelves, discount book stores, and discounted books at Amazon.com.

I'm not alone based on the number of places to find these used / remaindered books.

Yes, we will always have books, and in a generation or two, the only "new" books will be published electronically. But by that time, the book industry will be so Balkanized that, like 160 television channels, we will have 500 books on the best seller list, not one jumping out in front.

The publishers' salvation: electronic textbooks. Electronic textbooks will be the only mass-produced / mass-ordered textbooks of the future (about ten years from now).

[Frank]

But is it fun????

[Bran]

I have a nook wifi. It's $10 more and for that you get an ereader that reads the open EPUB format that libraries and numerous online booksellers use, not just B&N. I think it's worth it not to be essentially jailed to one source, as Kindle users are, even if it costs a few bucks more.

[Steve]

Yes, is it fun? Interesting that that's in the title, but isn't addressed in the article. When an editor writes a headline, it is a good idea to make sure it has something to do with what's actually in the article.

[Dean Corso]

Reading is a good thing in this ADD-oriented new world of hyper-speed without retained heed. Unfortunately our kids are not learning to read, rather depend on electronic devices to provide information. That has nothing to do with reading a BOOK - holding the tangible story in your hand, the crisp pages crackling with anticipation as you turn them...e-books are like online dating, can't feel it, can't touch it, can't become enmeshed with it, click.

[texas mike]

I can't figure out why this aricle and Consumer Reports compare the Kindle and iPAD. The iPAD is an abreviated lap top and can be used to read books. The Kindle is just a book reader.
I was going to buy a Kindle until I heard they deleted books from peoples Kindle because they made a mistake. Besides, the Kindle adds are to say the least, strange.

[Hypatia]

"With its enviable, prominent place in the nation's largest online bookstore, the Kindle may be positioned to push these e-readers out of the marketplace."

For a lousy ten bucks? hell NO! The Nook is much more user-friendly and easier to read. The iPad is clearly the big winner. Kindle? Gone by 2015 with the way Amazon does business! *snickers*

[me.yahoo.com/a/fwvZwjsvi4Da4_WcXE5AXERb28HRH.SftA--]

While Kindle might be fine for reading books, I also would like to use it for reading newspapers and magazines. My newspaper has color photos, I'd expect my Kindle to be able to show these photos. It's 2010, who wants to view items in black and white? Too stupid for words!!! With the technology available today, not having a viewer that is able to provide color images is a waste of my time and not worthy of a purchase and get this... Amazon is saying... that a color viewer will happen one day, but not anytime soon. How bizzare is that? It's 2010, I want a company that is up to date with TODAY and the future. Who here would go out and purchase a black and white tv? NO one and the same should follow on a book reader. If people would just stop and think and refuse to buy 10 year old technology, we would be offered color. Till then, I'd just as soon use my Ipad.

[Technology Buff]

For the last poster, Kindle has the ability to download your favorite newspaper.

[loulou]

I love the kindle its the best i love to read even more!!