According to Tim Carmody, Android's new KTab is but the next step toward's Android's inexorable march toward WORLD DOMINATION:
Quote:
Now that Amazon controls the end-to-end relationship between suppliers of goods stacked in its warehouses and consumers of those goods using its devices, Amazon’s next opportunity is to eliminate anyone who stands as a bottleneck between the two.
It’s already well underway with books. Amazon’s long offered authors various models to self-publish, giving them a generous cut in exchange for conditions that help keep e-book prices low. Now it’s developing its own imprint to work directly with authors and agents. J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore was publishing’s “Radiohead” moment, showing that major authors, too, didn’t have to play with traditional publishers to deliver e-books to readers.
How far is Amazon willing to take this? Amazon’s experience has shown that books can in turn provide a template for all kinds of media and other goods.
For instance, imagine an analog to Amazon’s self-publishing services: Why not make an independent movie or television show and release it through Amazon? Once the video is hosted on Amazon’s servers, it’s available for immediate digital download or streaming through Prime to desktops, tablets or set-top boxes. Both streaming and downloads promise a revenue share for content creators. Customers could buy a Blu-ray or DVD that Amazon burns and ships on demand — no storage, no overhead.
A lot of this video content would be vanity crap. But it could also be the next Funny Or Die or Channel 101. The breadth and independence of buying choices could easily differentiate Amazon from traditional studios — or even for those studios themselves, from competing services like Netflix.
You can extrapolate this to any kind of media, from music to magazines, to physical goods like groceries (one area where Amazon’s never really been able to turn the corner), or to software — anything that can be hosted, stored or delivered. All of it fronted by Amazon’s user accounts, credit cards and retail systems. It’s iTunes, but more.
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WIRED
I think he is right about a lot of Amazon's strategy, although I think he is wrong about some of the details. But I agree that the KTab is not really meant to be the next iPad killer: what Amazon is aiming at is to be the Walmart killer- a much bigger goal.