Amazon is making a foray into the mystery genre with a press conference on Feb. 9. And the sleuths of the tech media think they’ve found the killer product: a new edition of the Kindle reader.

The company isn’t revealing anything about the news briefing at a library in New York other than that founder Jeff Bezos will attend. However, Brad Stone of the New York Times has used his powers of deduction to note that the Kindle’s shipping date has dropped from three months to ‘four to six weeks’ and conclude a new edition will be unveiled next month.

The current model has been out of stock for several months. It had appeared this was simply down to overwhelming demand after the device got a high-profile endorsement from Oprah Winfrey, but the new theory is that Amazon stopped manufacturing new Kindles, knowing the second edition was on the way.

Rumours of a Kindle 2 were floating around even before the Oprah appearance, with apparently leaked screenshots suggesting changes included the addition of USB charging and a redesign to cut down on accidental page turning.

There’s a widespread assumption that orders currently on hold will be fulfilled with the second-edition Kindle. That would certainly make sense for customer relations, though it might cause logistical problems if reports of a price reduction from $359 to around the $300 mark are true.

One site reports a reader getting an e-mail saying their order will ship on March 5. That seems a long time after the press conference to start shipping the new product, though Amazon may be cautious about promising quick delivery and then getting caught out by a flurry of orders after launch publicity. Whatever the truth behind the current backlog, the firm can’t afford to disappoint customers with unexpected delays again.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 12:48 pm under Amazon, Technology.

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