It might not have all that much to do with the physical size though

Jan 17, 2014 07:43 GMT  ·  By

Amazon held an invitation-only event late last year, where it discussed a product that would be “even bigger than Kindle” and now we find ourselves wondering what it could be, and when it would show up.

The event was probably held only for its employees, and the subject discussed was a product called V1, which probably won't be the actual, marketing name, but a codeword that the company will use to refer to the device internally.

“We are working on a new revolutionary V1 product that will allow us to deliver Digital Media to our customers in new ways and disrupt the current marketplace. We believe this new product will be even bigger than Kindle!” Amazon wrote in the invitation to the exclusive event.

We learned of this because Boston.com published the invitation online this week.

At this point, it's pretty much impossible to say what the product will be. We could go with interpreting the words literally, in which case the V1 can be a larger e-reader, a set-top-box, an audio streaming device, etc.

We could also go with a less literal interpretation, where “bigger” could just mean a larger commercial scale, or something made for a broader customer base.

In that case, other possibilities arise, like smartphones, tablets, phablets (whose definition hasn't exactly been fully hashed out yet), a wearable gadget of some sort, etc.

Given that this is the first leak on this matter despite 2013 being well over and done with, we can't be sure when a follow-up report on this will be made.

If nothing else, Amazon is proving to be quite adept at withholding information about its future products. Maybe this leak itself was calculated. Since Amazon didn't have much to show while CES 2014 was going on, it can only grab people's attention through other means. And since this is the start of a new year, attention is pretty much a must.