Amazon Fall 2023 launch event: No New Kindles!

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by dedeca

Is there any chance that Amazon will add buttons to the next Paperwhite SE and finally make the death of the Oasis official?

I doubt it. When they did buttons they have Voyage but left Paperwhite as is button-free, same when oasis was around, they seem to try to mainly keep that line a button-free device anymore.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by rguion

The Amazon launch event for new devices occurred yesterday - no new Kindles announced! I was hoping for an updated Kindle Oasis.

I don't think they announced any new Kindles last year at the launch either, but they came out with a new Kindle a couple months later anyhow. (At least that's what my brain "remembers" – I may be mistaken.)

[binaryhermit]

I just don't think eReaders are really a marquee product line anymore.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I just don't think eReaders are really a marquee product line anymore.

Haven't been for years.

The ereader sales are a tiny fraction of ebook profits, which is a tiny fraction of Amazon Store, which is like a lemonade stall in comparison to their data server / "cloud" profits.

Also more Amazon ebooks are read on Kindle Apps than Kindle eink.

[binaryhermit]

Here's the question I really don't want the answer to, when will Amazon stop selling Kindles?

[Quoth]

When they offer a choice of Kindle or epub download formats
They don't quite abandon stuff like MS (Watch, PDA, Zune, Phone), or Google. Still, I can't see Google scrapping Search, Chrome, Chrome OS, Android or Gmail. Those are all software that feed Google info.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Here's the question I really don't want the answer to, when will Amazon stop selling Kindles?

I don't think they will. Why would people buy ebooks from Amazon vs some other store, if not for Kindles? Kindles are what locks people in the Amazon ecosystem, because you can install other apps on tablets and phones, but you can't read epubs on Kindles without jumping through some hoops.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

...
They don't quite abandon stuff like MS (Watch, PDA, Zune, Phone), ...

Here in the U.S. Amazon had a phone.

[binaryhermit]

The phone also didn't sell well and didn't last a full generation before getting memory holed

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

The phone also didn't sell well and didn't last a full generation before getting memory holed

It was terminated with prejudice, as they say. I do not think they ever even offered a trade-in allowance for them after that, and it got very few updates. But it got a big launch.

[Frogm4n]

IMO, the Fire Phone was a last-ditch attempt by Amazon to stay relevant in the mid-premium market. It flopped, hard, and a year later Amazon had fully dumped it and their whole line of premium iPad-competing HDX tablets and reworked everything else to be budget-focused. The Fire Phone was a gamble that didn't pay off and Amazon realized they were stuck dominating the low-end of the mobile market and that couldn't include a smartphone with the expense of a cellular chip and licensing.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I just don't think eReaders are really a marquee product line anymore.

I wonder if recent advances in the color eInk field might change the dynamics here. While color eInk technology has traditionally been too expensive and its performance unimpressive, I think the new generation (Kaleido 3, Gallery 3) is perhaps good enough to mark a tipping point where color might soon become the norm instead of the exception.

While colors are not so important for reading novels and other text-centric works, browsing a color device is just a generally more pleasant experience, and I think it does bring a potential for growth in the eInk device market - perhaps not as a direct LCD tablet replacement (watching videos will likely always remain a no-go on eInk), but as a more mainstream reading technology; there is no question that magazine articles with pictures, for instance, are more fun to read in color.

[Quoth]

Gallery is unsuitable for an ereader, it's really for shops etc.
Kaleido 3 is suitable for 10″ or larger ereaders with front light on where most of the reading is comics/graphic novels. It trades saturation for brightness. Less than 4096 colours/shades and lower resolution by physics due to colour filter on a 300 dpi screen.

So there is no significant static colour screen since Mirasol (dead) and Gallery (clever C Y M but inherently too slow for an ereader).

Colour eink is a niche in a niche.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

IMO, the Fire Phone was a last-ditch attempt by Amazon to stay relevant in the mid-premium market. It flopped, hard, and a year later Amazon had fully dumped it and their whole line of premium iPad-competing HDX tablets and reworked everything else to be budget-focused. The Fire Phone was a gamble that didn't pay off and Amazon realized they were stuck dominating the low-end of the mobile market and that couldn't include a smartphone with the expense of a cellular chip and licensing.

The Fire 11 is tempting as a tablet if it can run Android Playstore well enough. A decent spec compared to better Android tablets.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The Fire 11 is tempting as a tablet if it can run Android Playstore well enough. A decent spec compared to better Android tablets.

I have mine running Google Play and no issues so far, though I have not installed any Google apps so far. I have seen mention that some features of those not working 100%, as Fire OS lacks some APIs they want to use.