When Jeff Bezos and Amazon first dropped the Kindle into the world in 2007, arguments ensued about whether people would ever really spend time reading on a small device. That was the same year the first iPhone came out. Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs knew the answer. Jobs’ little device went on to change the world, quickly becoming not just a tool to talk and read on, but a serious video platform too — plus the whole personal assistant Siri business. Basically the iPhone soared. The Kindle? It stuck mostly with its role as a reader — and boy the Kindle sure is good at what it does. Amazon got its start as a bookstore and maybe its dedication to readers is just an allegiance to its roots — or else Jeff Bezos is ahead of us again and we just have to wait and see what’s going to happen.
Meanwhile, if you want the entire world library in your pocket with a near flawless reading experience and what Amazon is calling “months and months” of battery life, the Kindle Oasis is now here. This is an important announcement, even if it gets less attention than an Apple Watch launch. Amazon knows its got something really first rate, bumping the top-of-line price for the 8th-gen Kindle all the way to $290. (That top was $200 before the Oasis.) Real readers will rejoice. And they will pay. And they will be happy. This Kindle Oasis is very, very well named. An oasis, after all, doesn’t have to be in a desert; it can be a place for quiet wisdom in a cacophony. The Kindle Oasis is set for an April 27 release.
