Why now? A possible explanation is that eReader sales . A March report from Digitimes Research predicted that global shipments of e-readers would reach just 2 million units in the first quarter of 2012--a huge drop from nine million shipments in Q4 2011.

Consumers, it appears, are opting for color tablets instead, a phenomenon that Digitimes Research calls a "substitution effect."

Let There Be Light

The latest Kindle display rumor comes to us courtesy of TechCrunch's Devin Coldewey, who says he got a at Amazon's next-generation eReader with a "glowing" display. Coldewey, who lives in Seattle near Amazon's offices, says the front-lit Kindle will debut later this year. He writes:

"The device I saw was crudely camouflaged in a sort of cardboard enclosure, but the screen was clearly visible. With a tap, a slider popped up on the screen, and as it was dragged to the right, the screen lit up evenly with a rather cool light. In the dark, it was plainly noticeable as a glow, and in uneven light -- say, shade or a shuttered room -- the slight illumination made the screen much more readable."