Exactly.
Amazon is not in the electronics business; they are in the ebook retailing business.
Kindle is a means to an end, not an end unto itself.
Anybody rationally trying to analyze where Amazon takes the Kindle brand needs to consider first, second, and last how the hypothetical change helps sell more ebooks. And, not just any ebooks, but Amazon's bread and butter product: mainstrean recreational reading ebooks.
Most of the criticisms and proposed "improvements" aimed at Kindle aren't about Amazon selling more ebooks but about making the reader more suitable for *other* markets; academic PDFs, content creation, magazines, and (in the case of android tablets) non-reading functions.
The changes that Amazon is more likely to make are those that help sell ebooks by making Kindle provide a better *reading* experience. Going from K2 to K3, Amazon made the reader incrementally thinner, narrower, lighter. They tweaked the ergonomics from tolerable to actually good. And they got a screen that was more readable through higher contrast. And they improved the battery life. All, while dropping the entry price of the product line. The result? A sales rate of a million Kindles a month (more or less).
Higher resolution? A B&W 6in screen running at 167 dpi is fine for reading fiction. The incremental improvement of going to 213 dpi would help graphics, small sized text, maybe ornamental fonts. And how much of those do you find in your typical commercial ebook? What would such a move do to the Kindle's build cost? Increase it? Keep it from going down?
Color? It might help sell more magazines. Comics. Books? Well, color covers would look prettier... And what would it do to battery life (if LCD-based) or text readability/contrast (if eink)?
Touch-screens? Extra cost yes. Extra sales? Not likely. (Ask Sony.)
Video playback? Action games? Arbitrary apps? Tablets are *not* primarily ebook readers though some of us do use them a lot for it (*I* do.). And anything that isn't primarily an ebook reader isn't a Kindle. (As I said above; Kindles exist to sell ebooks.)
At this point we've seen enough of Amazon's evolution of Kindle to get a good idea of what they are likely to do with each of the three members of the family.
The K3 is a mainstream consumer ebook reader. It's all about volume and low cost.
The KDX is a specialty reader/document viewer that will either evolve into a textbook reader or vanish altogether.
The Kindle apps exist to sell ebooks to owners of multifunction devices.
Now, what gaps exist in that strategy?
With Kindle apps out there on every major portable and desktop OS, what *need* does Amazon have to do a Kindle cellphone, webpad, or media player?
None.
They already piggyback on everybody else's hardware.
As I said, K4 is most likely going to look pretty much as K3. Just cheaper.
Kindle has never tried to be all things to all people (hence the lack of support for library ebooks or alternate/legacy ebook formats), why would Amazon start now?
Where's the profit?
(Cue in Cuba Gooding jr.)
