One model of the Kindle family has disappeared from Amazon’s US site, prompting rumours the retail giant is about to ‘do an Apple’ and refresh its line-up of ebook readers.
Add to that price drops from Amazon and its competitors, and you’ve got quite a body of evidence mounting up.
Head to Amazon.com, and you’ll see the Kindle Touch 3G is currently unavailable, much in the same way Apple yanks its MacBook laptops from the Apple Store just before announcing a new range. There’s also a shipping delay on the Wi-Fi-only Kindle Touch. This could just be put down to shortages, except that Amazon has slashed the price of the Kindle DX by 29 percent as well. So Amazon is most probably getting rid of its current stock to make room for a new range.
Need more proof? Almost every offer in the deal of the day email for US customers on Friday was Kindle-related: cases, speaker docks, and all manner of accessories. But it’s not just Amazon cutting prices.
Barnes and Noble has dropped the price of its Nook range of ebook readers. The Nook Color has dropped from $169 to $149, the Nook Tablet 8GB from $199 to $179, and the Nook Tablet 16GB from $249 to $199. Admittedly the tablet prices may have come down to compete with Google’s Nexus 7, and the ebook reader could have dropped to tempt those looking for back to school deals. Or Barnes and Noble could know what Amazon is readying, and wants a flurry of sales to pre-empt it.
In the meantime, how about launching the Kindle Fire over here in the UK, Amazon? We’ve been waiting nearly a year now.
