I must admit I watched all of this with amusement as site after site jumped on the rumor of a new Kindle without doing much investigation or speaking to the horses mouth. Now Amazon has flatly denied a new version of the Kindle being released this year according to the New York Times.

amazon-kindle

Bits blog writer Brad Stone did what every other journalist should have done, he asked:

I asked Craig Berman, Amazon's chief spokesman, for comment on a possible Kindle 2.0, and today he responded.

"Don't believe everything you read," Mr. Berman said. "There's a lot of rumor and speculation about the Kindle. One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest."

I know everyone is curious as to how this device is doing, especially with Amazon being so tightlipped. However, all of the sources that were linking to this as news all traced back to the same (heretofore) unknown stock analyst extolling the virtues of new Kindles that were set to debut in just a few months and at a lower price.

Here's the small sampling of a rumor that got accepted as fact:

An insider let slip that two new Amazon Kindle models will hit stores this holiday season, with the first coming as early as October. - CrunchGear (Emphasis mine)

Amazon is working on a new version of the Kindle, and sees a big opportunity to market its e-book reader to college students, McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman said Friday in an e-mailed note based on meetings with management. (Emphasis mine. And how exactly did that e-mail get out to the general public?)

"There are already several new, improved versions of the Kindle in the works," he wrote. - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Most companies play their new devices as close to their breast as possible having learned that strategy from Apple. They all want the "Boom" effect.

But this particular rumor always struck me as odd considering the source. Journalism 101; who's the source and can it be verified by more than one? This rumor failed that test miserably but that didn't stop folks from running with this as fact. 

To spot the rumor from the real in-the-works product cycle, you can always take a cue from the big dogs, Apple, Sony, Nintendo, et al.

If company A is seriously working on a new product and it somehow gets out but they are not ready to reveal, it is always prefaced with "We don't speculate on rumors." Nothing more? Case closed. You can bet your bottom dollar whatever someone has "outed" is on the way.

But when company B categorically denies a new device AND gives you a time frame for the next upgrade, you can pretty much rest assured they don't want to blow their good PR vibes by being exposed as blatant liars.

There will be a Kindle 2 at some point, just not today and not outed by a stock analyst.

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