Jeff Bezos took the stage in an airport hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., yesterday to announce a range of new Amazon Kindle products. The showpiece of the presentation, Kindle Fire HD, comes in two sizes: 8.9" (16 GB, $299; 32 GB with 4G, $499) and 7" (16 GB, $199). According to the New York Times, "Mr. Bezos continually compared the Kindle Fire HD with Apple's iPad, talking about both the features of his tablet and its price." Among the Kindle Fire HD's new features: Whispersync that allows readers to alternate seamlessly between reading and listening (via Audible.com) to an e-book; X-Ray, for movies and books, which provides information from IMDB and other sources with a fingertap; and FreeTime, an app that allows parents to control children's use of the device. According to ZDNet, all Kindle HD devices will display ads on the lockscreen when the device is not in use.
Also available is a new version of the Kindle Fire, with a faster processor and with a lower price tag ($159).
Amazon's new e-reader, Kindle Paperwhite ($119; 3G, $179), is thinner than previous Kindle e-readers, and has a backlit, higher-resolution touchscreen. A new feature here is "Time to Read," which tracks the user's reading speed and provides an estimate of how long it will take to finish a chapter, or the entire book.
Amazon's least-expensive Kindle is now the Touch, at $69, with a new matte-black finish and new fonts, and available only in an ad-supported version.
As always, Bezos did not provide sales statistics (though he claimed Kindle Fire has 22% market share), but he did note, "We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices."
During the presentation, Bezos also touted Kindle Direct Publishing services and the new Kindle Serials, which allows readers to receive a book in installments.