[Zoot]

One of the most interesting unknowns is how dynamic Amazon will be with software updates. Sony does not seem to understand the concept of increasing value through frequent software improvements, and companies like Apple actively avoid them to "encourage" people to upgrade to the next generation (if you have 1/10 the user base of the competition then you just need your users to buy 10x as many of your products).

But other companies come out with new device firmware quite often, and are happy to push new functionality back into older models. Microsoft's decision to offer all the new Zune functionality to the original Zune owners hopefully will be noted by Apple or at least their users (of course nobody actually uses Zunes).

Amazon has the opportunity to greatly increase the appeal of their device and service through the "customer delight" produced by offering frequent unexpected feature additions and improvements. Will they have the foresight to recognize this and take this route? Or will they follow the unfortunate philosophy of when it's done you ship it, and when you ship it it's done for good.

Z.