When it was first launched, Amazon's Kindle was, at least in theory, a revolutionary product, bound to become the “the iPod of eBook readers”, due to the fact that Amazon provided a content delivery system superior even to Apple's iTunes. Unfortunately, some technical limitations and probably the fact that eBook readers are still a pretty “young” concept, have hindered the Kindle's ascension (the device is very popular, but not exactly as widespread as the iPod), with rumors regarding a 2'nd iteration floating around the Internet for quite some time now.

However, there is one hint that Amazon might be actually preparing a pretty big Kindle-related surprise for next year. Thus, according to an article by Brennon Slattery for PC World, it would seem that the few remaining Kindle units available in stores have already been sold, and Amazon has decided not to replenish the stocks, with the first units being slated to arrive only at some point in February 2009.

Of course, the reasons behind this state of things are rather debatable, which has given rise to all sorts of theories and speculations. One such theory is that the company was not exactly prepared for the Kindle's success and has simply ordered too few units from the OEM. A second possibility (and this one is a lot more popular, especially among all of the Internet's rumor-hungry communities) is that Amazon is actually making some room for the next Kindle iteration, version 2.0, which is supposed to solve a lot of the design and technical issues present in the current Kindle.

Well, regardless of the actual reason why the Kindle is currently out of stock, the fact of the matter is that things will most likely change a lot in 2009, when the consumers will get more “entrenched” and will be a lot more careful with just how they spend their money. Whether it plans to provide a brand new batch of Kindles or the Kindle 2.0 in February, Amazon will have to be very careful with the pricing policy, since, otherwise, its whole eBook reading pushing initiative might turn into one big flop.


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