Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit

[=X=]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Until somebody goes to court over it, "generic reader" means whatever Amazon wants to claim it means. Personally, I suspect that would include an ePub reader, but maybe not. Like I said, initially Amazon will define the term-then you can protest their definition by suing them and eventually a court will decide.

My take on what "Generic reader" means is that they don't want people to replace the Kindle reader skin/GUI with their own. Say like installing FBReader and having that as the main reader. I don't think they will have problems or issues with somebody extending file format support.

In short Amazon wants to keep the "Kindle" experience and prevent others from changing it. Unfortunately they seem to be borrowing a lot from the Apple business model.

=X=

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by =X=

My take on what "Generic reader" means is that they don't want people to replace the Kindle reader skin/GUI with their own. Say like installing FBReader and having that as the main reader. I don't think they will have problems or issues with somebody extending file format support.

In short Amazon wants to keep the "Kindle" experience and prevent others from changing it. Unfortunately they seem to be borrowing a lot from the Apple business model.

=X=

That would be nice. Hope you're right, even if I'm pessimistic about it.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by =X=

My take on what "Generic reader" means is that they don't want people to replace the Kindle reader skin/GUI with their own. Say like installing FBReader and having that as the main reader. I don't think they will have problems or issues with somebody extending file format support.

In short Amazon wants to keep the "Kindle" experience and prevent others from changing it. Unfortunately they seem to be borrowing a lot from the Apple business model.

=X=

I like the way you're thinking.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by =X=

In short Amazon wants to keep the "Kindle" experience and prevent others from changing it. Unfortunately they seem to be borrowing a lot from the Apple business model.

There was an article I read, which I can't find now, that agrees with you -- particularly about the borrowing from Apple aspect. Basically the article said that Amazon had the opportunity to really provide an open platform for hosting apps, but instead made the mistake of following Apple's business model. Additionally, the article predicted the failure of an Amazon App market because they will need to compete against Apple, who already has a huge lead in this segment of the market. The article went on to say that Amazon should have been offering more than Apple, but was offering even less -- especially when you consider that Amazon makes the App seller pay for distribution costs while Apple does not.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by asjogren

A conversion tool on the Kindle from ePub DRM and PDF DRM to MobiPocket (AZW) DRM would be legally problematical

^^

And I bet basic stuff like fonts and display changes will be no go...

[Sullivan]

Originally Posted by =X=

My take on what "Generic reader" means is that they don't want people to replace the Kindle reader skin/GUI with their own. Say like installing FBReader and having that as the main reader. I don't think they will have problems or issues with somebody extending file format support.

In short Amazon wants to keep the "Kindle" experience and prevent others from changing it. Unfortunately they seem to be borrowing a lot from the Apple business model.

=X=

That looks like it anyway. It's difficult to create an unproblematic "generic" anything with competition popping up everywhere!

[Dulin's Books]

apparently users will pay for the bandwitdh they use for "active content" over set limits

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/22/k...ndwidth-allow/

"Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user's Kindle via USB."

[Anarel]

Hn, I read that app producers would pay the bandwith costs....

[Dulin's Books]

but they will have to pass that on to the purchasers somehow

[kjk]

Passing on monthly bandwidth costs to users is going to be problematic I think-I have a feeling this will limit the types of apps devs are going to be willing to create for the Kindle - apps not using 3G/Whispernet, so things like RSS/news feeds, weather, etc. would probably not be financially feasible for a small developer.
I'm sure there will lots of puzzle games and the like, though.

[Dulin's Books]

exactly this cripples what could be developed

[queentess]

Originally Posted by NormHart

I doubt that I'd be interested in most apps for the Kindle unless they were ebook related.

Apps I'd like to see would be;
Organizational; ordering, sorting, folders, tags, etc.
Informational; links to book lists, author homepages, etc.
System; ability to modify screen saver content and settings.
Content; ability to view other ebook formats.

That is really about it. Games, web apps, blah blah blah, not interested at all.

My thoughts exactly. Smart folders/tagging (ala the capability of Gmail) for my books, easy screen saver changes, and I'd love to see ePub come to Kindle (though I won't hold my breath on that one).