(NYT) In a news conference today in Seattle, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the company has finally resolved the issue of folders on their electronic reader, the Amazon Kindle. Lack of folders (a simple method of organizing reading materials on electronic devices such as computers) has been the subject of growing complaints among kindle owners since its release in 2007. The ability to use folders to more efficiently organize purchases has been eagerly anticipated by consumers.Bezos announced that the issue of folders had been resolved by his technical team: "In keeping with our history of revolutionary changes in the way people read books, effective June 1, all kindles will only be allowed to contain one book. We believe this approach completely circumvents the folder issue and in fact provides readers a truly electronic experience of book ownership."Bezos went on to explain that the one book per kindle means that readers will always have the book at their fingertips, just like a paper book. "We recognize that people like to have a physical copy of each and every book, something they can put on their shelf, share with friends, and even resell at a garage sale. They like eink, but want the "book" reading experience. This is the best of two worlds."In making this changeover Amazon will allow readers to download one free book onto each kindle they own. "We recognize that initially the upfront cost of a kindle for each book will be a change for our loyal customers, so giving them the book free just seems right" said Bezos. Bezos went on to say that in order to help subsidize the free one book per kindle, personal documents converted by Amazon for the reader will be done at a standard $9.99 per document unless otherwise noted. The free conversion option will be discontinued; also effective June 1. When pressed why Amazon decided to make this radical change in their growing ebook market, Bezos said:"There were three basic reasons. First, configuring the Kindle to enable folders is not rocket science, but to be honest we just weren’t interested in doing it. It is a boring kind of thing to announce you know, and I really only want to do an announcement when it is a whoop de doo type of thing. Second, we realized that due to the thin profile of the kindle, you can have two to four times as many kindles on a single bookshelf than paper books. That is an incredible space saver for readers. And third, we are a business, not a charity. We need to sell, people need to buy. That my friends, is a no-brainer. Oh, and yeah, it also solves that DRM problem"Queried as to whether current owners of the kindle will be upset at this change Bezos laughed off that possibility. "We programmed all the kindles we have sold before they were ever released in preparation for this change. Effective June 1, all books on existing Kindles will be automatically deleted and customers will be provided the option of downloading one book onto it. Our customers know we are always on the cutting edge and always will be. They like to read, we like to sell. Again, a no-brainer."

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