Amazon Debuts Kindle 2 Ebook Reader

Amazon have debuted their second electronic book reader, the Kindle 2.

The news comes around one year after the original was launched.


Amazon's Second Generation Kindle

The first edition of Kindle was extremely popular, quickly selling out on Amazon.com. Amazon has remained silent regarding total number of sales, but several analysts predict around 500,000 units sold in 2008.

Kindle 2 has a new structural design, featuring round keys, and a new controller that is more natural to use. It also has 25 percent battery life improvement and has a new "talk to me" feature that will read all books aloud.

The new e-reader also ships with 2GB of onboard memory that can store up to 1,500 books -- Kindle 21 had 180MB of memory, good for just 200 books.

Kindle 2 weighs 10.2 ounces, is visually more appealing than the original, and the 6 inch tall screen can display 16 shades of gray.

Owners of the original Kindle will likely point out how it was sometimes annoying trying to turn pages, so Amazon fixed that and also made it 20 percent faster.

"Since launching the original Kindle a little over a year ago, customer response has far surpassed our highest hopes -- and we're grateful and appreciative for that. More people are reading more books, newspapers, and blogs on Kindle sooner than we ever imagined," Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement published on Amazon.com.

Since the company already has a strong following behind the original Kindle, and with over 230,000 books and magazines available, I expect the Kindle 2 to become extremely popular and sell out if Amazon doesn't have a large stock available.

Amazon will begin shipping it on Feb. 24, and the device is now on pre-order. Similar to the first Kindle, Amazon will still charge $359 for the ebook reader.