Kindle Touch sold out. Possible Kindle Fire 2?

Over the past weekend, the Kindle Touch became unavailable online. This has further fueled speculation of a new Kindle tablet.

Benjamin Chen, Published 08/27/2012

Last week, Amazon announced a press conference scheduled for September 6, 2012 in the Los Angeles area. This announcement sent ripples throughout the online tablet community as various tech sites such as CNet and The Verge expect the release of a new Kindle tablet. Over the weekend, both Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the popular Kindle Touch e-reader started showing as “currently unavailable” on Amazon.com, inviting further rumor and conjecture. These rumors are naturally on top of existing rumors of a 10-inch Kindle Fire.

One reason there are so many differing rumors is a statement made by Demos Parneros, president of US retail for Staples. Parneros stated in a July interview with Reuters that Amazon is working on “up to five or six tablets”. However, a glance at Amazon’s online Kindle Store shows only three models – the Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire.

Other speculators point to the fact that Amazon’s scheduled press conference is a day after a joint Microsoft and Nokia press conference during which Windows Phone 8 is likely to be the center of attention. Similarly, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5 during its scheduled news conference on September 12. This has led MarketWatch to speculate that Amazon the September 6 conference will instead focus on an Amazon smartphone.