Is Paperwhite Lighting Up Amazon’s Shares?

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) started its big day of product announcements on Thursday with the launch of a brand new e-reader device that improves on the screen resolution of its predecessor as well as its battery life and adds a new backlight function.

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The investor reaction to the news was immediately positive, with shares in Amazon, which hit a record high of $252.27 earlier on Thursday, up 1.94 percent at $251 at 3:15 p.m. ET. The optimism was in stark contrast to the reaction to Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) launch a day before. Shares in Nokia, which unveiled new Lumia smartphones built on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) new Windows 8 platform, fell 13 percent after the announcement.

The new Kindle Paperwhite is 9.1 millimeters thin, weighs 7.5 ounces, and is powered by a long-lasting battery, which Amazon says can keep the device on for up to eight weeks even when the backlight is being used. The light in the illuminated touchscreen is directed down toward the display, making reading outdoors easier. Users will also be able to adjust the brightness level of the light. The Paperwhite’s display improves screen contrast by 25 percent from the older device and has 62 percent more pixels than the 212 pixels per inch of the current Kindle.

The device will include the old device’s X-Ray and Whispersync features, and adds a new Time to Read function that shows the user how much time it would likely take to finish a chapter based on reading speed projections.

The Wi-Fi version of the reader will be available for $119 and begin shipping on October 1, while the 3G version will be sold for $179. The company also announced a $10 drop on its entry-level Kindle e-reader from its current $79 price tag. Preorders for the new device started on Thursday.

Chief executive Jeff Bezos, who unveiled the device, said Amazon saw the Kindle family of e-readers and tablets as a service, with hardware a critical element of the digital content business.

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