New price for the Kindle. Why?

Amazon.com has dropped the price of its Kindle e-book reader from $399 to $359, with free two-day shipping. Not a huge cut, but it makes me wonder why.

Six months ago you couldn't get a Kindle because it was on backorder -- the first shipment had sold out. Two months ago it finally returned to stock again.

Last week Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com's president, wouldn't say how many Kindles have been sold.

All this suggests that Kindle sales have slowed -- perhaps all the early adopters have theirs now and cautious folks like me are waiting for an improved Mark II version to appear at a greatly reduced price. Perhaps, also, the $299 Sony e-book reader has been tougher competition than Bezos expected. Publishing houses en masses are adopting the Sony for their employees.

As soon as the price of either the Kindle or the Sony drops below $200 I'll consider one of them seriously.

Meanwhile, the Gutenberg version -- the printed book -- still suits me fine, especially if I can get it from the library.