Younger readers fuel a Kindle boom, Amazon adds new lineup

The devices, announced Thursday, maintain the same prices as their direct predecessors, though Amazon raised the cost of Kindle hardware in August amid an industrywide memory shortage. The new 6-inch Kindle, available now, starts at $150, with an aluminum-encased variant priced at $190.

The 7-inch Kindle Paperwhite costs $200, and there’s also a $250 “Signature” edition with double the storage, wireless charging via a dock accessory, and an auto-adjusting front light. The Kindle Colorsoft, which also has a 7-inch screen, costs $290. That, too, is available in a Signature version, for $320. The Paperwhite and Colorsoft will in the coming weeks.

The Kindle business is enjoying a renewed swell of momentum.

Consumer usage of the company’s e-readers is soaring, said Kevin Keith, a vice president of devices at a media preview ahead of the announcement. Device sales hit their highest point in over a decade last year, he said, adding that Amazon has notched three consecutive years of double-digit growth in Kindle sales.

Total reading volume also hit a record in January, according to the company. And roughly 60% of new hardware purchases are made by customers who have never owned a standalone Kindle before — an expansion primarily driven by younger generations as the product line approaches its 20th anniversary next year.

Across the board, each Kindle is thinner and lighter than its predecessor. The Colorsoft is now the same weight as the Paperwhite, for example, an improvement made possible by slightly reducing the battery’s size. Both devices have been trimmed to a thickness of 6.8 millimeters, or about 0.27 inches. And for the most affordable Kindle, Amazon has made the front side one continuous surface, eliminating the raised border in favor of a flush edge-to-edge screen that looks and feels more premium.

Throughout the lineup, Amazon has also made the border around the screen match the device’s color, whereas it was previously black on some models.

Ube, a pastel purple, is the anchor color for this collection of Kindles, whereas it was matcha green for the prior refresh. “These kind of cafe culture colors really resonate with readers,” Keith said. Other hues like seaglass green and fig, a burgundy red, also stood out during the hands-on briefing.

The Paperwhite’s benefits over the entry Kindle include water resistance and longer battery life totaling 12 weeks (compared with six). The pricier model also adds the ability to change the screen’s color temperature to warmer tones, which can be particularly useful when reading at night.

Amazon will offer kid-focused editions of the three new Kindle models, each of which comes with colorful covers and a 12-month Kids+ subscription that unlocks thousands of family-friendly books and other digital content.

To accompany the refreshed Kindles, Amazon is introducing several accessories, including a new $80 case with physical page-turn buttons and a $35 handheld page-turn remote called the Kindle Click. The company cited “BookTok” and social media trends for inspiring the latter gadget, which pairs with the e-reader over Bluetooth and thus also supports many past-generation Kindles. The device allows users to prop their Kindle somewhere and advance through books even when it’s situated out of reach.

Some hardware makers have been experimenting with tiny e-readers that can magnetically attach to the back of iPhones, letting users read books on a display that’s easier on their eyes simply by flipping over their phone. But Amazon’s Chris Green, a vice president of industrial design, isn’t sold on the premise of a bite-sized e-reader.

“It feels like a thicker phone that I don’t quite get,” he said. “We found that when people have been playing with these things that after a few minutes, they go back to the phone and start looking at their alerts,” he added, framing Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle as a smarter bet for those seeking distraction-free reading sessions. “We want this sanctuary where people for hours can disappear into their own world and then can come back and face the reality we’re in today.”

Green’s principal design goal for future hardware is to continue chipping away at the Kindle’s weight and thickness. He already believes that Amazon has reached a point where, when the company’s latest e-readers are held in a case, they’re slim enough to feel more like physical books than technological devices.

Making the new 6-inch Kindle small enough to comfortably fit into women’s pockets, which are often smaller, was another priority.

Eventually, Green — who has helped design every Kindle device except for the very first model — hopes to strip away the bezels and everything but the essentials. “At some point we will get to something more like a credit card that’s all display that you’ll be able to flex with your hand for a page turn,” he said. “We’ll get to something more organic, but it will take time.”

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