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Color Kindle

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A Color Kindle Reader

The first color Kindle has arrived. Sadly for some this is no ordinary e-ink based device. Instead a new Kindle Fire Tablet has been born!

Click for Full Kindle Fire Details

This piece below was written before the release of the 4th generation Kindles, and its interesting to see how much speculation was right, and how much was completely off!

Is a Color Kindle Possible?

A Kindle in color has always been possible. But it would have meant relying on a back-lit LCD display. Whilst those are brilliant for computing, they do not make for the most comfortable reading experience. As the primary purpose of the Kindle has always been as a dedicated electronic reading device it has had to stick with monochrome.

The e-ink technology used for the Kindle's screen is what makes it so comfortable to read, even for hours on end. It uses very little power too, so is the reason behind the excellent battery life of the current ebook readers. But of course it is less than perfect when you want to display images, graphs, children's books or glossy magazines.

Until now, for those you would really need an LCD display to appreciate all that full color.

Now though the company that actually make e-ink have announced a full color version of their displays. In fact the Chinese ebook reader manufacturer Hanvon are due to show their first color e-ink reader in Japan early in 2011, and it is expected to be on sale in China in spring 2011..

This breakthrough, called Triton e-ink is able to display thousands of colors, as well as the 16 shades of gray currently scene in its Pearl e-ink. One thing I was particularly pleased about is that the advance towards color is not to the detriment of any other aspects of the technology. The display is on a par with Pearl, being 20% more crisp than older e-ink screens, and still great in direct sunlight. It seems a Kindle in color is more than possible, it is probably only around the corner!

Color and What Else for the Kindle 4?

It is highly unlikely that the next generation Kindle 4 will have only one difference from its current incarnation.

Our current love of all things touch would make a Touch-Screen Kindle a very attractive proposition. In fact rumours started in January 2010 that Amazon had bought TouchCo, a company developing touch screen displays. Many were surprised that we didn't get a Kindle Touch that year, but Amazon keep saying they want the technology to be right before launching any such significant changes.

It would certainly make the dedicated ebook reader more attractive to younger buyers. Plus it would free up space as the keypad would no longer be needed. That means they can increase display size whilst keeping the same overall shape, or make an even smaller more portable device without sacrificing display size. Anyone that uses the Kindle reader to go online will know how beneficial touch would be for navigating on the web too.

Color Kindle Release Date

So when are we like to see a Kindle Color Reader? Well the technology is already with us. My guess is that Amazon won't want to alienate the Kindle 3 buying audience by releasing such a significant upgrade too quickly. It could work if they give us a larger model that is something entirely different to the current generation ebook reader. My guess is that if they go down this route with a 7" reader in color we would see it in the spring. But for Color Kindle release date as a full blown replacement for the current model it isn't likely to happen till the summer of 2011. Just in time for the Christmas rush!