In the last four years smartphones, e-readers, and tablets have entered the consumer electronics market, and have sent everything into a tailspin. Prices are in constant competition and are pitting many major companies at war with each other (Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble). Many sales have moved from brick and mortar sales to online. Amazon has dominated the market in the online retail sector for years, and it’s wildly popular Kindle product line has helped shaped the way consumers make their purchases.
Last year, over a third of the post Thanksgiving sales were online. So, the focus will be less on getting up at 2am on Black Friday to rush to the shopping malls and Target or Walmart, and more on constantly watching your computer screen for short lived deals. By short lived, I’m talking minutes. The Amazon Kindle 2 sold out in minutes last year.
The iPhone 4S and Kindle Fire are the devices to watch this season. Everything is just speculation at this point.
Technology plays an increasingly larger role in holiday sales each year. Currently there is Black Friday, and then Cyber Monday kicks off a weeklong sale the week after Thanksgiving that is all online. It all really makes you think about how much you really want something and how far you are willing to go to get it at the best deal.
You can buy a new Black Friday Kindle Touch. It’s Amazon’s response to the Nook and Kobo Touch models, and has some features that are predicting to be major selling points this holiday season. There are two models, each with or without 3G capability. This just means that without 3G, the Kindle has to rely on being in a Wi-Fi hotspot to download content from Amazon and to use the web browser.
There is one version with just Wi-Fi that has a $99 Special Offers model and a $139 model without Special Offers. There’s also a Black Friday Kindle Touch 3G with Special Offers for $149, and 3G without Special Offers for $189. So, there are lots of choices, but the one to watch is the $99 one. For the first time, there is a Kindle under the $100 mark, and has touch screen capability. The $189 one is just $10 less than the Kindle Fire.
The “look and feel” of both the Kindle itself and its user interface have also undergone some major changes. The device doesn’t actually get released until November 21, but it will definitely be coming with a new silver lining instead of the black and white linings that were the trademarks of the from the previous generations.
The user interface gets a makeover, and navigation is driven by taps on the screen instead of through buttons on the sides of the Kindle. The Black Friday Kindle Touch boasts the most advanced e-ink touch screen display out there. The e-reader is also lighter and thinner than the previous generations, and is said to be designed with ergonomics in mind. Everything is touch driven: virtual keyboard, font size, notetaking, and more. The page turns are on both sides of the screen to prevent fatigue, and the font adjustments prevent eye strain over time.
The battery lasts an impressively long time: two months. That is double the amount given for the Kindle 4. The Black Friday Kindle Touch maintains one of the biggest Amazon Kindle selling features: the ability to read in bright sunlight. It can hold up to 4GB of storage, or 3000 books. That’s a lot of space for such a small device, and it comes with the usual unlimited Amazon cloud storage.
The Black Friday Kindle Touch selections pack the most for your money if you’re looking for a tried and true e-reader. The models start at only $20 more than the basic Kindle. But, the basic Kindle is still there for those who prefer buttons over a touch screen.
