Amazon released the Kindle First Generation on November 19, 2007, and it sold out in five and a half hours. The device remained out of stock for five months until late April 2008.
The Kindle First Generation device features a 6 inch (diagonal) 4-level grayscale display and retailed for US$399. Amazon subsequently lowered the price to $359. The 250MB of internal memory in the Amazon Kindle First Generation can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles, and the memory is expandable with an SD memory card. This model is no longer available as a new item, because the Kindle 2 replaced the original version.
On the Kindle First Generation, the Whispernet only works in the United States, but content can be downloaded from Amazon over the Internet. Amazon did not sell the Kindle First Generation outside the United States. Plans for a launch in the UK and other European countries were delayed by problems with signing up suitable wireless network operators. Another hardware decision which has been questioned is the non-availability of WiFi functionality on the Kindle. Instead, the device relies on Sprint's EVDO, AT&T's 3G network, or 1xRTT data services for Internet access, which, critics argue, does provide a large amount of geographical coverage, but also drives the price of the device up considerably.
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