Amazon.com offers $139 Wi-Fi-only Kindle e-reader

Amid growing competition from Apple Inc.’s iPad and other e-readers, Amazon.com Inc. is launching a redesigned Kindle that’s smaller, faster and has Wi-Fi and twice the battery life.

The $189 price and 6-inch screen size are the same, but the new version has an improved navigation system that replaces the Kindle’s quirky joystick with a more standard control pad. It also has the higher-contrast display that debuted last month on the larger Kindle DX.

But the blockbuster is likely to be a $139 Wi-Fi-only version of the new Kindle — the first without 3G cellular service — that could help Amazon maintain its lead position as the market surges in coming years.

“We think that will make a significant impact on the number of multi-Kindle households and just broaden the overall ability for people to get it,” said Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle at Amazon.

The Seattle company announced the new models and began taking orders Thursday. They’ will be shipped starting Aug. 27.

Amazon’s not saying much about what’s inside the new models, but it provided lots of specifications. They’re 15% lighter and 21% smaller, and they turn pages 20% faster. The battery charge lasts four weeks, up from two weeks, and the device holds 3,500 books, up from 1,500.

Amazon also has finally added a light of sorts to the Kindle. For the new model, the company is releasing a $60 book cover with a slide-out LED light that’s powered by the Kindle battery.

The bare-bones Kindle is also priced $10 less than a new Wi-Fi-only version of the Nook e-reader that Barnes & Noble announced last month.

Dudley writes for the Seattle Times/McClatchy.