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Amazon’s Kindle devices have been some of the most popular eBook readers since the company introduced its first eReader with an E Ink display in 2007. But some of the earliest models basically became paperweights in 2021 when US wireless carriers shut down their 3G networks and older Kindles without WiFi lost the ability to connect to the internet.
Now Amazon is ending support for some newer (but still pretty old) models. Kindle models released in 2012 or earlier will no longer be supported starting May 20, 2026.
Amazon Kindle Keyboard (2010/2011)
The move isn’t a huge surprise – Amazon already ended Kindle Store support for those models almost four years ago. At the time, this meant you could no longer open the Kindle Store on your device to browse the store and purchase books. But you could still visit the Kindle store on another device, buy a book, and have it delivered to your Kindle.
Starting May 20th though, folks with older Kindles will be able to continue reading any books already on their device, but will “not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books” on those devices (emphasis added).
And if you unregister your Kindle from your Amazon account or factory reset your device, you “will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way,” although that’s not entirely true – you could always try jailbreaking your Kindle and installing custom firmware to replace Amazon’s software.
Affected models include:
These are all at least 14 years old at this point, but Kindle devices tend to be pretty durable since they’re generally single-purpose gadgets with long-lasting batteries and displays.
If you’re not interested in jailbreaking your device, I’d ad vise spending the next month making sure to download books to your device or possibly considering an alternate eReader. There’s no shortage of options from companies that aren’t named Amazon. And if you haven’t soured on the Amazon ecosystem folks in the MobileRead forum and the /r/Kindle community on Reddit note that Amazon is emailing users who have some of these older models and offering a discount on the purchase of new Kindle devices plus credit that can be used toward eBook purchases.
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