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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
Agreed that Amazon must not sit on its laurels and stop all development of the Kindle. But then, there's no evidence they have, right? Since the summer they have: brought out the Kindle DX; brought out the Kindle 2 Global Edition; added pdf support for the Kindle 2; brought out the Kindle DX Global Edition; added support for other languages; created a new royalty model for authors. And delivered flawlessly over the critical Xmas season when its prime competitors floundered.
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I will give it to Amazon about getting the Global Editions out to market. They have been able to get an established product in the US to the World. They should make a ton of money.
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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
If Amazon was smart, they would be VERY cautious about "jumping" on Android. Amazon Kindle is a gateway into selling, seamlessly and easily, as much content as possible. The Android OS is about surfing the net and becoming a netbook or a gussied up smartphone. Amazon should focus on making the best dedicated reading device and focus enhancements on readers within niche markets -- like text-books, annotation, note-taking sharing, etc. It does not have to figure out a good way to add video pop-ups to Sherlock Holmes.
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The problem is that the software which drives the Kindle is getting aged. It was Amazon who insisted that they would never enable foldering. Amazon nows seems ready to update its organization scheme. It just took years of harassing from their install base to get them to see how important it is.
They don't need to find a way to make video pop-ups work in their readers. They just don't need to get behind the development curve and frankly, they are.
The Kindle is a Linux OS the same as Android. With all of the devices coming to the market with Android and with the wealth of developers who will be schooled on how to develop for Android, it would seem prudent for Amazon to consider converting the OS over to Android. They can still limit how the interface is handled which in turn limits the Apps which will be placed on it by the End User. By making a key move to Android, they would virtually mega-jump their ability to support the Kindle. They could still implement a proprietary model for selling Apps for use on the Kindle. They could still have a licence model like Apple has with Iphone App Development. They would just empower the developers who want to develop for the device.
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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
Amazon has the ability to drive the vision here and, so far, they are doing a pretty good job. There's no sign they are asleep or on vacation. But as tempting as slipping into glitz like adding a "touch screen strip" so they can say the device "has a colour screen", they need to make sure their device really delivers the best content and the best reading experience.
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The only effective use of an added LCD panel has been with the Entourage design in my opinion. Amazon should keep the design of the Kindle simple but still groundbreaking. Their focus should be on being the best Book Store model out there.
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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
I admire Sony as a CE player but they really need to be taken to task for their silly claim of "1 million Google books". These are delivered as the OCR'd versions of Google scans -- which means they are virtually unreadable due to so many errors. It's shocking, actually.
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The Google books thing is pretty lame. One quick thing they should definately do though is standardize on EPub. The Mobi format will be their downfall do to its inability languagewise. Now that they have went Globally, they should want the whole world to want one.
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Originally Posted by SensualPoet
It's far too early, in short, to "demand" Amazon "get out of the way" when it is Amazon that is actively seeking better ways to access for more content, for more people in more countries. Amazon's agreement with AT&T to deliver seamless wireless 3G in 100 countries, free, is pretty astonishing.
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I stand by my statements. Amazon is a great company and I enjoyed my Kindles immensely. Amazon just needs to maintain their sharpness on the cutting edge or just get out of the way for those they inspired.