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Kindle Paperwhite is Out of Stock on Several Amazon Websites

Kindle-Paperwhite-product-image-7[1]Fall is rapidly approaching, and that means that Amazon is going to launch new gadgets.

I still don’t have any leaked details on whether a new Kindle is coming out soon but I can tell you that another model seems to be on the way out. Supplies of the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon’s newest ereader, are running low.

Reports are coming in from across the web that the Wifi mode is out of stock on Amazon.com as well as Amazon.it and Amazon.es. Those websites are still selling the 3G model, so readers aren’t completely cut off, but the better selling Wifi model is no longer available.

I was first tipped to this story at the beginning of the month by a reader, who told me that the KPW Wifi was out of stock on the European websites (Thanks, aceflor!). I didn’t think it meant anything at the time, but now that Amazon.com is showing a similar shortage of Kindle Paperwhites it’s clear that I was wrong.

It looks like Amazon is letting the Kindle Paperwhite go out of stock before they launch a replacement. That’s different from past years when Amazon continued to sell older models for several weeks or months after shipping their newest ereader.

On a related note, Amazon also stopped selling the Kindle Keyboard earlier this year, also without announcing a replacement. I am bring up that older news because two points make a line, and that line is pointing at a startling possibility. What if this is a sign that Amazon isn’t going to launch new Kindles this year?

That’s not as crazy as it sounds. We don’t really know much about the number of ereaders made and sold, though the latest quarterly reports from E-ink suggest that sales aren’t as good as they used to be (also that Amazon’s E-ink screen purchases had dropped). What if Amazon is seeing a decrease in the number of people interested in buying a grayscale screen?

This speculation would fit in with the news from earlier this year that Amazon bought Liquavista, a competing screen tech company with a low power color screen. Maybe Amaozn is hoping to goose their ereader sales with a color screen, though as one reader reminds me we aren’t likely to see that ereader this year.

On the other hand, maybe Amazon simply misjudged the demand for the Kindle Paperwhite. For all we know there might be a new E-ink ereader coming from Amazon in the next few months, possibly even with an ultra-HD screen.

It is frankly too early to say for certain.

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Comments


flo August 27, 2013 um 12:13 pm

Isn’t that a little bit too early for a liquavista screen?

Nate Hoffelder August 27, 2013 um 12:15 pm

Yes. I should mention that.

fjtorres August 27, 2013 um 12:17 pm

A year early, at least.
More like is an thin bezel HD eink screen.


mikep August 27, 2013 um 12:24 pm

I was wondering about this myself since I couldn’t find the wifi model available on Amazon, only Best Buy. if new versions are coming out it makes sense to wait. Time for some investigative journalism! 🙂


cookie August 27, 2013 um 12:59 pm

Where are the unscrupluous Amazon.com insiders to clue us in?


Luca Conti August 27, 2013 um 1:16 pm

So Your forecast is everything and the opposite of everything. No ereader or new ereader? Your post is just speculation pointing to nowhere. Very helpful indeed 🙂 Thank You

Nate Hoffelder August 27, 2013 um 1:21 pm

Yep.


Void August 27, 2013 um 2:31 pm

I said it before (to them) and I will say it again: I am not interested in a kindle so long as I cannot automatically organize my books on upload from Calibre or purchase as I can on Sony’s e-readers. If they ever fix that glaring software hobble, then I will gladly buy the kindle (epub would be nice too, but I can convert easily enough, so it’s not a major thing). Any reader that gives me the option to sort by name, author, or upload only and requires me to manually organize my shelves one book at a time is not worth the time it would take me to organize my collection.

cookie August 27, 2013 um 2:52 pm

I will never buy a Sony reader again until they implement a system that allows me to upload personal documents and sync to last page read across all my devices.

Void August 27, 2013 um 4:01 pm

I only read on my e-reader and I do personal docs with my cell phone, so this particular complaint is not one I had considered. Even so, When I have 1000+ ebooks (damn you for making me buy all the books I like to re-read again, internets!), having to even think about organizing them by hand 1-by-1 is enough to send me right back to sony.


Kindle Paperwhite ausverkauft: Räumt Amazon das Lager für neue eReader? – eBook-Fieber.de December 18, 2015 um 12:49 pm

[…] das also, dass Amazon in diesem Jahr gar keine neuen eReader mehr auf den Markt bringt, wie Nathan von The Digital Reader schließt. Es könnte ja sein – und die Zahlen des Display-Herstellers E-Ink scheinen das zu […]


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