Amazon Kindle DX - About To Be Scrapped?

Amazon unveiled their new Kindle models at the end of September. The Kindle 4, Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire were revealed to the world for the first time and got quite a bit of publicity.

Many industry watchers were a little surprised. There had been speculation regarding the release of an Amazon tablet computer for months. It was one of the worst kept secrets in the electronics industry.

So the Kindle Fire was expected, but many were surprised to see the simultaneous launch of the Kindle 4 and the Kindle Touch. These were also expected, but not necessarily at the same time as the Kindle Fire.

Another surprise was the fact that the existing Kindle models, the Kindle 3 and the Kindle DX, were retained. The Kindle 3 was rebranded as the Kindle Keyboard and the DX carried on regardless.

Prospective Kindle buyers now have a huge choice of different Kindle to choose from. In fact, when you include "special offers", "without special offers" and Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi plus 3G, you might be forgiven for thinking that the choice is bordering on the edge of confusion.

Here are the currently available Kindle models:

1. Kindle 4 with special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 79.
2. Kindle 4 without special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 109.
3. Kindle Touch with special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 99.
4. Kindle Touch without special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 139.
5. Kindle Touch with special offers (Wi-Fi plus 3G) - $ 149.
6. Kindle Touch without special offers (Wi-Fi plus 3g) - $ 189.
7. Kindle Keyboard with special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 99.
8. Kindle Keyboard without special offers (Wi-Fi only) - $ 139
   
9. Kindle Keyboard with special offers (Wi-Fi plus 3G) - $ 139.
10. Kindle Keyboard without special offers (Wi-Fi plus 3G) - $ 189.
11. Kindle DX (3G only) - $ 379
12. Kindle Fire tablet computer (Wi-Fi) - $ 199.

For items 7 through 10, customers can also choose between graphite and white for the casing color. However, the list above has more than enough entries and price points without taking cosmetic appearances into consideration.

Whilst there's little doubt that anyone looking for a new Kindle reader has plenty of options, it's difficult to imagine why anyone would opt for the Kindle DX. When you lie it down with the other Kindles, including the new Kindle Fire, it does look to be oversized and overpriced. 

Whilst it is still very definitely a portable device, it is quite a bit larger and heavier than the other Kindles in the range. It's also difficult to see why anyone would pay almost twice the price of a Kindle Fire for a device which has only a monochrome display and can't surf the web (or not very well at least) or play video.

This year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday Kindle deal from Amazon saw the DX price cut to just $ 259. It looked a little like Amazon was getting rid of old stock in advance of discontinuing the DX completely.

Amazon are rumored to be launching a larger tablet computer in the first half of 2012. It seems probable that when this happens, the DX may become extinct.