Back in October E-Reads Production Manager Michael Gaudet speculated on rumors that the second generation of Kindle was in gestation, and the proof was in some “leaked” spy shots of the device.

Today a number of publishing and e-book executives received invitations from Amazon to attend a press conference at New York City’s prestigious Morgan Library.

What could the announcement be? Perhaps…

1. Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, has been named the Obama administration’s Car Czar;
2. Amazon envoys have brokered a lasting peace treaty in the Middle East;
3. Amazon has acquired Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan Group, and Hachette for $137.50.

Gizmodo thinks that “Amazon’s new-and-improved Kindle could soon see the light of day.” That would make the most sense.

Amazon’s pre-announcement announcement comes on the heels of the firm’s notification of publishers and authors that it will cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats. “In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon,” writes Calvin Read in Publishers Weekly. The move won’t have much practical effect. As Reid points out,

“Amazon did not specify how long the Adobe PDF and Microsoft formats will continue to be available. A search of the site turns up mostly technical works and e-docs in PDF form and very little in the Microsoft format. Amazon offers tens of thousands of titles in the Mobipocket e-book reader software, which allows e-books to be read on a wide variety of handheld mobile devices. The company said it will now be urging customers to buy e-books through Mobipocket. Amazon also sells more than 200,000 titles for use on the Kindle.”

E-Reads will be in the throng at the Morgan, thumbs poised over the Send key to release the announcement.

RC