Amazon is killing the Kindle Touch to focus on Paperwhite

Amazon is streamlining the number of Kindle products in its lineup today by discontinuing some of its older e-ink reader devices.

Amazon’s $99 Kindle Touch is currently unavailable for purchase, but its product listing page directs you to the company’s new Paperwhite product. The Paperwhite itself isn’t a direct upgrade to the Touch. It retails for $119, offers a paper-like experience while reading your books, and is plagued with some serious flaws. (However, that hasn’t stopped people from ordering the device, as it’s currently on back order for 4 to 6 weeks.)

My guess is that the Paperwhite was always intended to replace the Touch. Amazon probably wanted to sell through its current stock of Kindle Touches, which would be much harder to do if it branded the device as obsolete (aka last year’s model).

Amazon is also discontinuing its Kindle DX, a larger version of the e-reader that was more expensive and never quite achieved the success of the smaller versions. This news isn’t very surprising as we’ve heard rumblings for a while that Amazon was ditching the DX.

Customers still have plenty of options if they want a Kindle, though. The company is still offering two versions of the non-touch Kindle (with and without ads), as well as its line of Kindle Fire tablets.

We’re reaching out to Amazon for an official confirmation that its discontinued both the Kindle Touch and Kindle DX and will update this post with any new information.

Via PaidContent