New Kindles will not arrive until September's second half

THE SMALLER, LIGHTER, FASTER Kindle e-readers will not get to customers until the latter half of September, at the earliest, the website has warned as it declares that its sold out.

The WiFi plus 3G Kindle is selling for $189 and the WiFi-only model will go for $139. However Amazon has warned that orders placed today might not ship before 17 September. This is because both models are temporarily sold out due to strong customer demand. It said that as new stock comes in it will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Amazon said that the Kindle has been the best-selling item at Amazon.com for two years. However it has always refused to state sales numbers.

According to Amazon the new versions can manage 20 per cent faster page turns. They are also about 15 per cent lighter, weighing just 8.7 ounces. They have 4GB of storage, which is room for about 3,500 books, and double the storage space of the previous models. µ