Surveys reveal readers are cutting Kindles out of their lives, and a rival is winning them over

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said Amazon’s Kindle lineup has been fundamental to the e-reader category taking off. While there are many more alternatives now, in a variety of convenient sizes, Kindle still remains the default choice for many people. While familiarity is one reason, the other is the interface designed around your ebook library. However, with a slew of recent changes, Amazon appears to be pushing away readers, including some of the oldest backers.

This would otherwise make sense for regular devices, but sounds outrageous for an ereader, which uses minimal resources and does not require a hardware bump every few years. My fourth-gen Kindle Paperwhite, bought in 2018, still works like it did the day I bought it, and I plan to keep it until it dies.

Naturally, many others are in the same boat. We recently asked our readers what they thought about Amazon’s move to effectively choke older devices. And the answers we received were obvious and expected.

Almost two-thirds of Android Authority readers who responded to the survey said they were frustrated with the change, while a mere 6% said they were fine with it. Another 20% of the readers said their Kindle devices, bought after 2012, were still not affected.

Most of the affected readers echoed a similar sentiment in their comments: most of them are unwilling to give Amazon a second chance after this move.

“This is just the final straw. Goodbye Amazon, hello reading books (bought anywhere but Amazon),” our reader, ianofroyston, commented. Meanwhile, another reader, notyalckram, noted how profoundly helpful Kindles have been:

I used it to save carrying kgs of paper reports to meetings, instead just emailing the PDFs to my Kindle. Not sure what i will do now, but it won’t be a Kindle.

Another reader, stewart.t.mccall, also speculates Amazon could make a similar move for the older Echo device. They wrote, “I expect to see Echo devices getting sunset, where they will cease working, and functionality will be limited enough to make people want to replace them.”

Another sentiment that persisted throughout the comments was the intent to leave Amazon’s ecosystem and seek an alternative.

In another survey we conducted with almost 6,000 readers, we learned that about half were already seeking other options. Kobo’s ereaders were among the most preferred, and about 33% of the respondents said they wanted a Kobo device. On another related post, our reader, fahran.wallace, said they were pleased that Kobo was still releasing new features to their 10-year-old Aura One. “Feeling very happy about my choice, and will buy Kobo again when it dies,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, another 20% (combined) wanted either a BOOX or a Remarkable tablet. While the BOOX offers the flexibility of Android, the Remarkable allows distraction-free notetaking and offers superior annotation features to the Kindle Scribe.

But it’s not all grim for Amazon, just yet. About 24% of our readers still chose their Kindle over other devices, and some even shared the unpopular opinion in support of Amazon’s decision. “The fact that this is even news is kind of wild to me. These devices are 14–18 years old, and were supported way longer than most of our much more expensive phones ever are. Break that cost down and it’s like $10 a year,” mikahcruz wrote.

Meanwhile, some seemed convinced that they’re better off reading on a phone or a tablet. Given the convenience of a fluid screen, as well as Android features that enhance reading, we would really oppose their choice.