The first Amazon Kindle was released in 2007. Amazon launched the original Kindle on November 19, 2007, introducing an e-reader designed to connect wirelessly to Amazon's growing digital bookstore.
The first-generation Kindle cost $399 and used a six-inch E Ink display with four levels of grayscale. Its built-in wireless service, called Whispernet, allowed users to download books without connecting the device to a computer. The initial model also included a physical keyboard, an SD card slot, and roughly 250 MB of internal storage.
The Kindle was developed by Amazon's Lab126 team after founder Jeff Bezos directed employees to create a dedicated electronic reading device. The name was chosen as a metaphor for kindling a love of reading and intellectual curiosity. Amazon also launched its digital publishing platform, originally called the Digital Text Platform, around the same time.
A frequent mix-up is confusing the original Kindle with the Kindle 2, which arrived in 2009. Later models added slimmer designs, touchscreens, front lighting, color tablets, and writing features, but the Kindle product line began in 2007.