Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
I just want amazon to put TTS back on their eink reader, especially now that they bought the excellent Ivona TTS system. But they won't b/c they want you to buy the fire  |
Or, maybe they found people weren't using the audio features.
Remember, the audio in the KT worked for audible titles, so taking it out (technically) reduced the potential market for their own audio ebooks. You could even buy them direct from the Kindle.
http://audible.custhelp.com/app/answ...h-%26-touch-3g
If all they wanted was to force people to spend more, they could've taken out just the (licensed) TTS instead of all the audio. It really, ahem, sounds to me more like a trade-off made to hit a pricepoint: higher-res screen plus frontlight plus audio would've driven the price higher than they wanted for the Paperwhite. And since neither Nook nor Kobo had audio by then and they kept the KT around, it cost nothing in terms of competitiveness.
We may, however, see a comeback for audio in the PW3 since they are now actively pushing synchronized text and audio ebooks.