MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

Boston · 01-27-2009, 10:11 PM

Given the series of events, my guess is:

1) A new version of the Kindle
Reasoning: How inventory went suddenly from available to 11/13 weeks. I think they had planned production of the Kindle 1 to get through the holidays and were getting ready for make the new version. The unanticipated demand with no parts inventory/production pipeline left them no choice but to hold off new orders until the new version was ready for release.

2) A major firmware upgrade for Kindle 1 users
Reasoning: Some have reported receiving an upgrade (to 1.2) that appears to offer little new functionality. So innocuous, it was like "why did they bother?" So I think this was just a testing the automated upgrade process before a bigger launch. Amazon knows they will have a lot of angry Kindle 1 users if they feel they need to upgrade to get long awaited software enhancements. Especially given "automatic updates" was one of the reported features of Whispernet. They have an extremely loyal following who have made the Kindle popular with through viral marketing that they can't afford to lose.

01-27-2009, 10:11 PM	#58
Boston Fanatic Posts: 555 Karma: 40032 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Boston :) Device: Kindle, Kobo Aura H20, Pixel XL	Given the series of events, my guess is: 1) A new version of the Kindle Reasoning: How inventory went suddenly from available to 11/13 weeks. I think they had planned production of the Kindle 1 to get through the holidays and were getting ready for make the new version. The unanticipated demand with no parts inventory/production pipeline left them no choice but to hold off new orders until the new version was ready for release. 2) A major firmware upgrade for Kindle 1 users Reasoning: Some have reported receiving an upgrade (to 1.2) that appears to offer little new functionality. So innocuous, it was like "why did they bother?" So I think this was just a testing the automated upgrade process before a bigger launch. Amazon knows they will have a lot of angry Kindle 1 users if they feel they need to upgrade to get long awaited software enhancements. Especially given "automatic updates" was one of the reported features of Whispernet. They have an extremely loyal following who have made the Kindle popular with through viral marketing that they can't afford to lose. Last edited by Boston; 01-27-2009 at 10:38 PM.