Amazon turns older Kindle e-readers into (almost) useless paperweights

Amazon has announced that all Kindle e-readers launched before 2013 will no longer be officially supported from May 20, 2026. In practice, this means drastic restrictions, as after this date it will no longer be possible to buy or borrow new e-books on these e-readers or download them via the Kindle Store.

E-books loaded onto a Kindle before May 20 can still be read in the future. If one of the affected e-readers is reset to the factory settings, it can no longer be set up. If you want to continue accessing a Kindle library, you must either buy a newer Kindle model such as the Kindle Paperwhite ($159 on Amazon) or use the smartphone and tablet app. The following Kindle models will no longer be able to download new e-books after May 20:

• Kindle (2007)
• Kindle 2 (2009)
• Kindle DX (2009)
• Kindle DX Graphite (2010)
• Kindle Keyboard (2010)
• Kindle 4 (2011)
• Kindle Touch (2011)
• Kindle Fire (2011)
• Kindle 5 (2012)
• Kindle Paperwhite (2012)
• Kindle Fire 2 (2012)
• Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012)
• Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012)

Anyone wishing to continue using one of the affected devices has the option of modifying the firmware via jailbreak so that conventional Epub files can be opened in order to download and install e-books from other sources without going through Amazon's servers. Even if 14 years is a relatively long period of time, Amazon's move once again shows that the lifespan of its own products is artificially limited by the company's server constraints.