Amazon just announced a $60 price cut on its second generation Kindle ebook reader dubbed the Kindle 2. The drop in price brings the cost of the device to $300, which includes 3G connectivity in the USA over Sprint’s EVDO network to download books over the air. Users also have the capabilities of transferring books by USB or downloading using the device’s WiFi connection.

While the $300 price will make the Kindle more competitive and attractive, especially when compared to the Sony readers because Amazon’s device has built-in “free” 3G connectivity, my advise is to hold off until ebook stores, authors, and publishers sort through the mess behind the emerging format’s DRM restrictions. DRM is digital rights management, and works to limit copies or impose restrictions to the digital formats to prevent piracy.

A few months ago, several large technology blog blasted Amazon because a user could not re-download a book because he had exhausted the number of times a book can be downloaded and re-downloaded. This will pose as an inconvenience, especially if you are looking to upgrade devices in the future and want to transfer your digital library to the new device. While I haven’t experienced the same issue on the Kindle, or the Kindle iPhone app for that matter, I have experienced something similar with eReader, a mobile ebook reader and storefront with apps for popular mobile devices including Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm OS, and the iPhone.

eReader is a service operated by rival Barnes and Noble. Purchases made through the website eReader.com are not marked with the number of times a book purchase may be downloaded or re-downloaded, which is similar to the Kindle. In my experience, I had exhausted the number of times I could download some of my digital books due to the number of restores on the iPhone. A web form to eReader and Barnes and Noble went un-answered. For this reason, unless you’re making purchases for quick, one-time reads, I would strongly urge you to cautiously wade through ebooks until DRM issues are resolved.

(via: Engadget)