Amazon CEO Confirms Second Edition Kindle Not That Near
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been speaking lately about the Kindle and confirms that a second version of the device isn’t planned anytime soon. He does say that there will be future versions of it, but that a second version is “not that near.” On the other hand, an Amazon spokeswoman was quoted saying that no future iterations of the Kindle are planned. This makes it seem as if no official plans have been made, but as CEO I’m sure Bezos has long-term goals in mind.
Most gadgets get upgrades and improvements that necessitate future versions (like the iPod, computers, cell phones), but I have a feeling Amazon may be taking a Nintendo-type approach.
When the original Nintendo was released, the company may not have envisioned that anyone would need another version. You could make more games for the version you had, so why would you need another system? But as the technology improved, we got the Super Nintendo, and the N64, and of course now we have the phenomenal Wii system.
Perhaps in a similar way, Amazon doesn’t forsee a need for a Kindle 2.0 right now because there are tons of books for users to download, and the system works. But users are making wish lists of missing or improvable features, and eventually Amazon will probably find a reason to release another version.
The early adopters in the crowd are hoping it won’t be for a while. After all, we dropped $400 on this thing and don’t want to have it become obsolete any time soon.
