Amazon is preparing a firmware update that will allow users to purchase audiobooks directly from Audible and listen to them on the Kindle. The first generation Kindle Oasis and entry level $79 Kindle will unlock the Bluetooth chip and introduce an audiobook player. These two models do not have a headphone jack but you will be able to hook up a pair of bluetooth headphones or a wireless speaker.
Amazon is currently drafting up marketing material for Audible on the Kindle. They currently only have imagery available on the entry level Kindle for $79, but other models will have it added sometime in the near future.
The Voyage and Paperwhite both have Bluetooth chips and are compatible with the Kindle Audio Adapter, which is a small device that plugs into the USB port and has a 3.5mm headphone jack. It was designed to give people with vision problems the ability to have a text to speech engine that would read aloud anywhere you pressed on the touchscreen and would narrate e-books. I believe that due to the Bluetooth chip in these two devices that will also get the Audible treatment sometime in 2018.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
