New Amazon Kindle 3 stands out against its earlier siblings

Amazon’s latest Kindle has caught everyone’s attention in the e-reader market.

Seeing the possibility of Kindle being overtaken by Apple iPad in the market, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezo has slashed the price to make it a better and more competitive e-reader in the market, although iPad is much more than an e-reader.

There are many improvements in the latest Kindle version compared to the second generation e-reader. The new generation of e-reader known as Kindle 3 has smaller body that is 7.5” x4.8”x0.34” compared to Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 at 8”x5.3”x0.34” dimension, almost 21 percent smaller but retains the same 6-inch display. But it is much smaller than Kindle DX, which has 9.7-inch diagonal display with 10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38" dimension.

And the latest Kindle weighs 8.5 ounces for Kindle Wi-Fi version and 8.7 ounces for Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi version (that is weighing less than a paperback according to Amazon) compared to 10.2 ounces of Kindle 1 and Kindle 2, which is 15 percent lighter than the previous versions. The Kindle DX version, anyway, weighs 18.9 ounces.

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The Kindle 3 with 3G comes in two colors (classic white and graphite), similar to Kindle DX, including the e-link display, which Amazon claims is 50 percent better in contrast to Kindle 1 and 2 versions. Also Kindle 3 features crisper and darker fonts compared to Kindle 2.

All the versions of Kindle e-reader have storage access of 3,500 books. The original version Kindle 1 had only 256MB (internal)/180MB (available for user content) of storage capacity compared to 2GB/1.4GB in Kindle 2. But the latest one, Kindle 3, has 4GB/3GB storage capacity similar to the Kindle DX version which has 4GB/3.3GB storage access.

When it comes to battery life, Kindle 3 is just an improved version of Kindle 2, after a firmware update that increased the latter's battery life from 4 days to 7 days. But Kindle 3 has a battery life of 3 weeks for Wi-Fi version and 10 days for Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi version with wireless on. And even Kindle DX gives 7 days battery life similar to Kindle 2.

And one of the biggest reductions is in terms of price. Previously, Kindle 2 was criticized for its high pricing at $359 though it was slashed to $299 and later on to $259. But Kindle 3 is priced at $189 for Wi-Fi+3G version and $139 for Wi-Fi version. And the Kindle DX version is priced at $379.

The Amazon Kindle 3 e-reader version offers 20 percent faster page turn, enhanced PDF reader, built-in Wi-FI, soft-touch textured back, new WebKit-based browser and voice guide read-to-me menus compared to the previous Kindle 2 version.

Kindle 3 also allows the users to access books in 60 seconds with fast, free wireless delivery with no more requirement for computers. And the U.S customers will have access to 630,000 books including 109 of 111 New York Times best sellers, plus audiobooks, periodicals and blogs. Also it assures the user access to 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright and pre-1923 books. More than 510,000 books are priced at or less than $9.99 with the current 80 New York Times best sellers. Moreover, download and read the first chapters for free before buying the book.

With the help of Whispersync technology, Kindle books can also compatible to read on iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android devices and Blackberry.

According to Amazon’s CEO Bezos, the e-reader is mainly targeted towards “serious readers”, that is 10 percent of the population, which is about 28 million people in the U.S.

Also, few reports show that Amazon has sold more than 3.6 million Kindles, which is more than the Apple iPads' figure at 3.3 million worldwide.

Bezos expects the new device to last longer. He says: “We’re trying to build something that’s great for long-form reading -- something you’d use if you want to sit down and read for two hours… Our mission on the device side of the business is to use the latest technology to make the very best purpose-built reading device. We think that’s a mass product.”

Dmitriy Molchanov, an analyst at Yankee Group said, “The real task Amazon has is converting people from physical media to digital media... Any device that can do that will help them.”

The Kindle 3 will be shipped on August 27, 2010 and is available on the basis of pre-order currently on Amazon Web site.