Amazon pitches latest Kindle into Sony ebook battle

by Dan Leahul, Brand Republic 10-Feb-09, 11:00

LONDON - Amazon has unveiled the second generation of its Kindle ebook reader, claiming faster download speeds, sleeker features and longer battery life with an available library of over 230,000 ebooks.

The device will retail for $359 (£269) and will be available from February 24 in the US, throwing it into direct competition with Sony's newest reader device, the PRS-700BC ($399), in the nascent ebook reader market.

Amazon has remained tight-lipped about how many of its original Kindles were sold since its launch in 2007, but analysts estimate sales have reached as much as 500,000.

The Kindle 2 features a six-inch digital-ink display with wireless connectivity so ebooks can be downloaded directly to the device.

With two gigabytes of memory, it can store over 1,500 ebooks from Amazon's online library of 230,000, which includes 103 out of the current 110 New York Times Best Sellers, which can be downloaded for $9.99.

US and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,200 blogs are also available.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, said: "Kindle 2 is everything customers tell us they love about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life, and capable of holding hundreds more books."

It includes new features such as text-to-speech, which reads out the text on the screen, and the Whispersync Bookmarking, which allows users to read their ebooks on other people's Kindles.

Horror author Stephen King yesterday announced that he is releasing a new novella, 'Ur' which will only be available from the Kindle store.