Color Kindle? Well, Maybe Next Year

Newswire AFP reports that Amazon has designed a color version of the Kindle. Now for the fine print: don't hold your breath.

“I know it’s multiple years [away],” Jeff Bezos said in response to a recent question. How multiple? “I don’t know how many years but it’s years.” How about e-ink? What's wrong with that? He's seen it, but he thinks it's “not ready for prime time”.

Here's Bezos's problem: prime time is now. As we said in a recent survey of color e-book initiatives, Is Color the Real Kindle Killer?, "A kaiju is marching from Japan to the West, and the Kindle, Sony and other black and white e-book readers are in danger of being trampled. Call the monster Colorzilla."

Amazon may not have multiple years, because color is just multiple months away, and some of it is available now.

RC