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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Definitely not october, since Amazon generally puts new Kindles up for pre-order a month ahead. Also, the october date speculation is for the (proposed) tablet, not necessarily the readers. As the poet said, expect some news on that front in the next two weeks.
Now, if we're throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, I throw this out: odds are Amazon is going to fork the Kindle line: keep the K3 design for ad-supported readers and intro the K4s solely as full price models. Pricing? WiFi KSO at $99 by xmas, entry level K4 $119, 3G KSO $139, 3G K4 $169. And sometime next spring they move the KSO to the fourth gen design.
Would not be surprised to see the Kindle touch with a larger than 6" screen, maybe 8 or 9, in a 16x10 aspect.
Would also not be surprised if the WSJ were totally off base and Amazon is going in an entirely different direction.  |
Ha, this has gotten a bit confusing, what with all the different models floating around.
I do think the WSJ is more or less on the ball. The tablet move has been supported by a number of people, and given that the K3 was announced just shy of a year ago, they're due for the K4.
First up, I wonder if they'll dump the DX model with the advent of the tablet line. You have to trim the line somewhere, otherwise it becomes a disorganized mess in the customers' minds. The DX has tended to lag behind when it comes to firmware, and I think this might be where they finally say the heck with it.
I don't see them having this big mix of K3s and K4s. I do think that the low-end K4 will be pretty much identical to the K3, with just enough surface changes to distinguish it. And I can't help but wonder if the non-touch K4 will be wifi only, with no 3G model. The K3 wifi-only hardware launched a year ago for 139, sans special offer subsidization. I think they can get it to 99 bucks this year. And maybe 79 with SO. I really, really think they want to hurt B&N with the double-digit price point.
Then the new K4 touch edition. I would think they're due for a higher-res screen, similar to the Google Reader. Something better suited to rendering a menu system displaying a lot of book covers (like the other touch-based menu systems out there).
There would definitely be a wifi-only version, and I have to think that they'll price it to undercut the Nook. 129? Heck, if the Kobo can sell for 129 without the massive infrastructure that Amazon has, maybe Amazon can get the K4 Touch down to 120 or 115. But maybe that's me being overboard. 169 for the 3G version?
And again, special offers is a whole other ballgame. I definitely don't see Amazon abandoning that tangent. It's proved wildly popular, and it's a huge help in the price-point war. And the recent AT&T deal is another big wrinkle. So maybe across the board, 25 bucks off of a wifi model with SO, and 50 off of 3G models?
I will be completely shocked if Amazon doesn't make a big move on prices. This is the first time where they've fallen behind a competitor in sales. The Nook is winning right now. Amazon is coming out swinging against Apple, and I have to assume that they're going to do their damnedest to do the same twice over to B&N by challenging the tech of the Nook Color with their tablets and the price of the Nook Touch with the Kindle line.
It'll be interesting.