Is the Kindle 2.0 on its Way?

Online rumors that the Amazon Kindle 2.0 is on its way seem to be true by all accounts. Amazon is holding a press conference on February 9th and the last time they did this was to introduce the original Kindle. Amazon had been working for much of 2008 on a successor to its surprisingly popular ebook reader device, but they were so overwhelmed with orders they couldn’t get it ready for the Christmas rush. However, it doesn’t seem that it will come with a color screen. Amazon is said to prototyped a color screen but the next version will probably feature an improved black and white screen instead. Industry pundits are saying that the new Kindle 2.0 will feature an improved black-and-white, grayscale screen and a better battery life. The original Kindle is not perfect but it does what is expected of an ebook reader. Despite its flaws, the Kindle sold well, simply because it did its job of allowing users to wirelessly buy and download books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. Although the Sony Reader might the added benefit of a touch screen, the Kindle’s wireless download capability swings the balance the other way. One of the chief complaints of the current Kindle is that the position of the page forward and page back buttons sometimes causes the user to hit them accidentally. As one user said:

“It’s so great to be able to download free samples of any book that are a full chapter. O.k. so sometimes you’ll accidentally change the page not a big problem”.

Kindle users also complain that the design is a little clunky too so a sleeker design for the Kindle 2.0 would be great. Hopefully, these minor issues will be addressed in the next version of the Kindle and improve the usability of what is already a very good ebook reader. With a bit of luck we will find out more about the Amazon Kindle 2 on February 9th.

Tagged as: Kindle 2, kindle ebook