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New Amazon Kindle WiFi Retails for $139 – But are you Buying?
New Kindle WiFi Sells for One-Third of Previous Generation Kindle
Amazon just released its latest version of the Kindle. The Kindle Wi-Fi. This new generation Kindle has two versions, one of which sells for just over one-third of the price of the previous generation Kindle, the Kindle DX (retails for $379).
Seth Godin was prophetic (or did hear it from someone who violated a non-disclosure agreement?) when he urged Amazon to launch a simple, cheap Kindle to fight against the Apple iPad Tablet for e-reader dominance about 7 weeks ago. It has already happened, although not quite to the tune of $49. The cheaper non-3G version of the latest Kindle is retailing for $139.
Here’s a brief look at the two new Kindle options.
New Kindle Wi-Fi
The latest Kindle version with wi-fi only sells for $139. Not bad, considering that it:
- is 21% smaller than the previous version
- weighs 8.5 oz., 17% lighter
- same 6″ reading display
- no glare
- has double the storage – up to 3,500 books
- has built in wi-fi
- month-long battery life
- has 20% faster page turns
- wifi web browsing
New Kindle Wi-Fi with 3G
The Kindle Wi-Fi with 3G version is basically the Kindle Wi-Fi, only with the added 3G capabilities to connect and download books and browse the web. It retails for $189, and has no monthly payments for the 3G. You are essentially paying $50 for the added wi-fi capabilities.
Is it Enough to Convert Those who were Scared Away from Price?
For the device capabilities, $139 seems like a great value. But is it a game changer? If you consume books on a weekly basis, you probably already have a previous version of the Kindle. I think that Amazon is trying to reach out to those who were previously shying away from the Kindle because of the high price, whether they are book reading addicts or not.
Amazon has done a great job in cutting out some of the previous concerns – “it’s too big and clunky”, “the battery doesn’t last long enough”, “the glare hurts my eyes over long periods of reading.”
But price may still be the determining factor. You have to ask yourself the question, “Do I want or need to pay money to read the latest, greatest books?”. There are many people out there, myself included, who still see the great value provided in getting free books from the library. Sure, you may have to wait a few weeks while a book is on hold, and you might not always be able to find the book you are looking for. But if there’s one thing I know about books, it’s that there is never enough time to read all the ones that I want to.
Is the latest generation Kindle a game-changer for you? I’m still hitting up the library.
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My name is G.E. Miller and 
I have a sony e-reader and download free e-books from my library. best of both worlds! Not sure if the kindle can do that since it is much more locked down than the sony. And does everyone realize that there is only ONE manufacturer of the patented e-ink display? Therefore, ALL companies source the same technology: sony, amazon, b&n for the nook, etc.
I think it can already be said that the new price point is a game changer for many people. Amazon already sold out of the new generation of Kindles (both $139 WiFi and $189 3G version) and offered a new ship date of Sept 4 (just in time for school). I definitely thought about buying the new Kindle due to my long commute to work, but I still believe its not as a cheap as it could be. I think the race is still to the $99 price point, which could happen around the holidays. However, to me, the iPad is still attractive at $499, even though you can get the Kindle at a discount, because the Kindle and iPad don’t cover the same functionality (i.e. iPad does what the Kindle does and more).
BTW, I’ve been lurking your blog for a long time and I really enjoy the work!
Larry,
The iPad doesn’t exactly do what the kindle does. It lets you read books, but it doesn’t do that as well as the kindle. For example, you can’t read in the sunlight without glare.
They are really two separate devices, and I’m glad the kindle’s price has dropped–to further separate these two.
If I wanted to browse the internet in my house (the only place I have access to wi-fi, for that $499 price point), I could get an iPad. If I wanted to read books while sitting in my backyard, the kindle is better.
I think we can have both, and they can serve different purposes.
For me, $499 (minimum) is still way too expensive for a device I don’t need. But $139 isn’t. Again, I don’t see the ipad as an ebook reader with extra functionality, I see it as an internet/media device with a sub-par ebook reader. Still can’t justify the $360 price increase there–I rather get a netbook, personally, AND a kindle.
I was waiting for a new update and as soon as it launched I bought one that morning. I went with the $139 kindle. I think they will hit the under $100 with the next launch, but I didn’t want to wait for that.
@ HolyKemp – I did not know that – interesting.
@ Larry – thanks for lurking!
@ Julie – good point about price points for stuff that you don’t NEED. Need is the key word.
@ Andrew – maybe they’ll start dropping then from helicopters at some point. =)
Nope, I’m still a library fan. My husband even downloads library audio books and listens to them during his commute. I LOVE our library.
Close, but no cigar.
Not because of the hardware – that’s a one-off cost – but because e-books are still too expensive for me.
When I buy a paper book it has value – I can lend it, donate it and resell it. All of these factors are built into the price.
When I buy an e-book, none of these things apply; I am paying close-to-physical price for a blob of bits that I can’t give away.
Add to this the “1984″ problem – Amazon can yank back anything at any time for any reason – and it is enough to make you question what, exactly, you have “bought”.
The Nook lets you download books from the library through Overdrive, but the Kindle doesn’t. I figure my Nook saves me money over buying books, cause I can’t be bothered to check out and return physical books at the library.
Plus the Nook doesn’t have that stupid physical keyboard that the Kindle has. It’s so unnecessary.
@Charlotte – this is interesting – I had no idea this was even possible. Can you basically get any book the library has for free or just certain ones?
I do not own an e-reader and will still be buying books that I am interested in reading. My boyfriend and I own thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of books, and for us owning the physical forms gives us just as much satisfaction as reading them. Libraries or e-readers would not make us happy, we’d rather spend more money and have them physically.
The one reason I hadn’t bought a Kindle before: You couldn’t buy them in New Zealand! That’s right, Amazon would happily ship them to Zimbabwe but not New Zealand…
I live in Boston, so for me it is from Overdrive at http://overdrive.bpl.org. You can check out audiobooks on the iPhone and some other devices through there too.
They have a limited selection of books with set numbers of copies, but I’ve gotten a few new releases I wanted through there. You can place a hold to get on the waiting list for a given book too.
@Honey-
You must not move very often! I’m so sick of carrying boxes of books every time I move to a new place.
I don’t believe Kindle would be good choice for me. I agree with Honey. I prefer to purchase my books. You can’t highlight the pages in a library book or on Kindle.
Jessica,
You actually CAN highlight in a Kindle, even on the 1st generation Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200127490
You can highlight text or take notes in Kindle (1st Generation) the way you would use a highlighter or pen on paper. A clipping of the text you highlighted is also automatically placed in your “My Clippings” file.
But I assume there are other reasons you want to keep your paper books. For me, there are an extremely small number of books that I’d want to keep for the future–though there are definitely books I’d like to lend to people. For me books are mostly a waste of space once I’m done reading them. I’m not the type of person who would reread a book, even one I absolutely loved.
I spend significant amounts of time standing in front of my bookshelves, running my fingers gently across the spines, picking them up and reading the back cover/book jackets. When I do this I am sometimes remembering what I’ve read, other times planning what I’ve still to read. This makes me happy, whether or not I actually read them again (though I do read many of them again, and there are books I own that I’ve read 10 times or more). My PhD is in rhetoric, and I love what owning books says about me to others, about how it makes my house look – full to bursting with appreciation of the thoughts of others, of the worlds they create.
I am also known among my work friends as the person to come to to borrow a book. I enjoy when folks come over – for the first time or the hundredth – and get drawn to my bookshelves. I like watching them impressed by some things, being struck by what we might have in common, or asking questions about things they have not heard of. It is a conversation starter, a bonding, that is not replicable if you have a bunch of files on a computer or tiny device. And of course my boyfriend and I have very similar tastes (and similar numbers of books, though I believe I have the slight edge), and so neither of us can get rid of things just because we’ve read them, because almost certainly the other person will read them someday.
I can’t imagine any other way of being.
I LOVE my kindle and have taken to catching up on the Classics (FREE!) that I missed out on when I should have read them (as a kid).
Kindle would be good choice for me. I agree with Honey. I prefer to purchase my books.
Im sorry but there is no comparison to the iPad. Yes, you can read a book on both but you can still make a phone call on land lines but not many people want those either. You should be able to go online, chat with friends, find restaurants and play games with the same device you read your books on. To me, it’s worth the extra money for a better all around gadget.
Neil,
Why “should” you be able to do all of those things on one machine? Who made that a rule?
I prefer to use multiple devices that are all specialized–they do one thing, but they do it well. The ipad is CAPABLE of reading books, but it’s not BETTER at it than the kindle.
Just like my blackberry is CAPABLE of playing music, but it is not better at it than my ipod.
I love reading and although I own one bookshelf for my favorite books I read over and over, I get most of my one time reads from the library. I’m still holding off on buying a kindle not because of the one time cost for the device, but because the e-books are still overpriced. An e-book certainly costs more than a used paperback. Also having a kindle would encourage me to pay money for something that I get for free now. Maybe if ebooks were $2 each instead of $10 I would open my wallet.
I’m waiting for the “Netflix” of e-books. I want a service where I can have 1 book at a time, with unlimited checkout for $5-10 a month. When I’m done reading I can move on to the next book and the previous one is erased. Whomever starts this service will make me very happy.