Starting in May, pre-2013 Kindles won’t be able to buy or download new books

Owners of older Kindle e-readers, particularly those featuring physical keyboards or buttons for page-turning, are facing a significant change. Amazon has announced that, starting May 20, these older devices will no longer be able to purchase or download new books from the Kindle store. This decision impacts all Kindle models released in 2012 and earlier, including the original Kindle from 2007. While users will still have the ability to read books that were previously downloaded, they will be unable to obtain new content. Additionally, if any of these devices are reset to factory settings, they will not be able to reconnect to an Amazon account. The affected models include the Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and the 1st Generation Kindle Paperwhite. Furthermore, earlier Kindle Fire tablets from 2011 and 2012 will also lose their access to the Kindle store. It's worth noting that Amazon's naming conventions can sometimes be confusing. For example, the Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation is also referred to as the Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation) on Amazon's support site because it belongs to the fifth overall generation of Kindle devices. Users can check their Kindle's software version: if it's older than 5.12.2.2, it will be losing access to Amazon's e-book library.