Finally . . . The Kindle

I know I said I was going on sabbatical, but that was before Jeff Bezos got off his buttocks.

On Thursday, rumors began to surface that Amazon is finally about to unveil its Kindle e-reader.

CNET News announced Bezos, Amazon's CEO, will make the announcement at the W Hotel in New York's Union Square.

The New York Times reports the following:

"The Kindle is equipped with a Wi-Fi connection that taps into an Amazon e-book store, which users can access to purchase new electronic books--and Amazon has reportedly signed onto a deal with Sprint for EVDO access. Additionally, the device comes with a headphone jack for audiobooks, as well as an e-mail address.

But the source said the Kindle apparently won't bear many other BlackBerry-like features such as a calendar or address book. The Kindle may also lack a backlight...

The final price of the Kindle is expected to be $399, which is consistent with rumors and earlier reports. The industry source also added that Amazon had been looking to ink a deal for the launch so a hot book title could be bundled with the e-book reader.

This marks a major launch for Amazon. According to the source, Bezos has held this project very close, delaying it for more than a year to perfect the details."

Knowing Bezos' willingness to cut prices in order to attract volume (remember Harry Potter?), I'm betting he will offer early purchasers free downloads to several bestsellers.

I went to Amazon.com and did a search for Kindle. I pulled up 118,134 matches. I only looked at the first ten pages (120 matches). Eighty-three of the 120 were empty placeholders. By page 8, there were nothing but empty slots...placeholders for what?

If that means Amazon will offer 118,000 Kindle compatible books and magazines, it will be one hell of a launch. It needs to be. I've been posting about this reader for more than a year,