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Amazon to Launch 6″ Color Kindle This Year? Update: No

The rumor-mongers at Digitimes have come up with another juicy story today. They’re reporting on a story in a local Chinese business newspaper. According to Economic Daily News, E-ink has landed its first order for 6″ Triton E-ink screens.

Amazon is due to accept the first shipments in March, with total number of units expected to hit 3 million this year. There’s no hint on the ship date, but Amazon could easily have the Kindle Color on store shelves this year.

I usually have to suppress my gag reflex while writing about Digitimes rumors, but this time around I’m going to go out on a limb and say that they’re probably correct.

I’ve checked with my source at E-ink and he has not yet denied this story. This particular source is the one that told me that told me that confirmed that Sony has interesting plans for E-ink screens. He would know about this new Amazon contract, and the fact that he hasn’t denied it speaks volumes.

Update: My source just now checked his email (it’s a holiday) and called me. This is absolutely not true. It is a complete and utter fiction. In fact, I have been told that Amazon couldn’t be shipping a color E-ink Kindle for at least the next year.  That’s how long it would take to set up  production line, which hasn’t happened yet.

E-ink has reportedly been ready to make the Triton screens for some years now, but it wasn’t until last summer that the screen finally hit the market in China. This was the 9.7″ Triton screen, not 6″. The same device has recently started shipping in the US and Russia as the Ectaco Jetbook Color.

I have a Jetbook Color, and I really hope that the Kindle Color doesn’t have a screen that is as gray as on this ereader. This isn’t a light gray like you might expect on one of E-ink’s screens; it’s more like a medium to dark gray. It’s actually darker than the screen on the original Kindle.

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Comments


Mike Cane February 20, 2012 um 10:45 am

Is it the same gen technology?

Nate Hoffelder February 20, 2012 um 10:49 am

Yes.


fjtorres February 20, 2012 um 11:05 am

March delivery means a May-june delivery at the earliest.
Could be July if they’re looking to price them low and need to stockpile a lot of them.
I don’t see how they can price them too high, though.
$299 for a 3G version looks to be the top the market will bear, no?
$199 WiFi-only might be most likely.

Main problem I see is the 6in screen size.
The best use for color displays–magazines and kids books–really needs 8in-plus screens.
Plus, Triton screens aren’t all that saturated, are they?

With all that, if the price is low enough they’ll move.
Just the words "Color Kindle" are good for about 10 million sales a year. 🙂


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charlie dulin February 21, 2012 um 2:48 pm

this is probably the problem of "news" organizations conflating reports about EINK HOLDINGS with only being about epd eink displays. it probably means that EINK HOLDINGS has taken orders from Amazon for FFS LCD displays from the Hydis division

Alex Sher February 22, 2012 um 12:18 am

yes, I see E ink sell Hydis LCD screens for Kindle Fire:
http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/cracking-open-the-amazon-kindle-fire/6328630?seq=29


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mohammed zaidan March 13, 2013 um 12:12 pm

I hope that it will support arabic language, like pocketbook e-reader


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