Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Lets review some recent kindle developments that might end up having a big impact -

Could Apple tie-up with Amazon for ebooks?  

Things are getting really, really interesting –  

1. First,  Silicon Alley Insider reported that Apple was not building an ‘iTunes for eBooks’ and would let Amazon and B&N provide ebook content -
   

   Based on our conversation with this person, it seems that any Kindle-killing the Apple tablet does will have to come from third-party e-book sellers, like Amazon (AMZN), Barnes & Noble (BKS),

2. Today, GigaOm has a really interesting take on Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, leaving the Apple Board. Even more interesting is Steve Jobs’ rationale for the change -
   

   Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

There can be little doubt that Apple’s stance is infinitely better for Amazon than Sony and Plastic Logic’s embracing of Google Books.

Interestingly enough, the FTC still thinks Apple and Google are up to some hanky panky.

J&R.com mistakenly allows preorders of the new Sony Readers

The new $199 Sony Reader 300, and the $299 Sony Reader 600 were mistakenly put on pre-order at JR.com for a few hours. This was yesterday morning and sent MobileRead into a frenzy (they’re hoping someone saves them from the terrible current state of kindle dominance ).  

The juicy details on the 600 (called the Sony Reader Touch Edition) -

1. It has freehand highlighting and annotations i.e. you can use a stylus and write or mark anywhere. 
2. It’s $299 so it directly challenges the Kindle 2.  
3. No confirmation on WiFi capabilities.
4. Its also got a font engine that supports nearly any font and double character fonts (chinese, japanese, korean).

The smaller 300, called the Pocket Edition is interesting mostly because of its size (5″ screen) and its price ($199). Supposedly, $199 is the ‘buy without spousal approval’ threshold.

Filed under: news Tagged: | kindle developments