Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

The pain that Amazon Kindle is feeling due to the Nook is nothing compared to what will happen if another company beats Amazon in the race to build out an App Store for eReaders.

A race that eReader companies are finally waking up to.

Consider the iPhone (big surprise, huh)

In the last few weeks the iPhone has become an integral part of my life. Not the cellphone itself (although it is vital).

These are the apps that have made it indispensable -

1. The Habit Factor. 
2. 100 Pushups and 200 Situps.  
3. Kindle for iPhone.
4. Gratitude Journal – It sounds like a bunch of feel-good nonsense. However, it makes you happier – and in sunless Vancouver you can use happy.  
5. MyDiary App and Idea Organizer App that let me note down ideas quickly - anywhere. 
6. Push Email Notification so can check my email anywhere. 
7. iSpeedRead that lets you read books using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. Only a few books at the moment. 
8. iPod and Music. 
9. Leonardots – a game that combines left brain and right brain functions.
10. iBrainFit – An N-Back Exercise Game. Its the only exercise that actually increases fluid intelligence (whatever that is).  
11. SleepTracker (from Tylenol) which lets me enter sleep hours and how the day felt.
12. 10 different Photo Apps – especially ShakeItPhoto which turns your iPhone into a Polaroid camera, Color Splash, and AutoStitch.

And a lot more. Only 2 out of all the Apps listed are created by Apple. A lot of them are free.

Basically only 3 (email, ipod, phone) of the Top 20 features I use my iPhone for are coded/created by Apple.

Of course there are a ton of distractions and waste of time apps and games. However, there are ways (both on the reader’s side and the platform’s side) to avoid those. Perhaps not have Games at all.

Amazon would probably want to keep core features cordoned off too. However, let everything else in.

The key opportunity Amazon is missing is to make the Kindle even more indispensable.

The Kindle or any eReader could have most of those Apps

Out of the Apps on that list, a lot make sense on a Kindle.

1. A lot of those Apps are diary and tracking apps i.e. 100 pushups, MyDiary, Gratitude Journal, Habit Factor, SleepTracker. All of those make perfect sense to have on an eReader.
2. The ‘good for you’ games like Leonardots and iBrainFit are very doable too.
3. Word games and vocabulary games and Crosswords are a natural fit.
4. Adding on email is doable. It is a big distraction so perhaps it doesn’t fit.
5. How is Speed Reading not a feature? AutoScroll, RSVP, Speed Reading should be core features. People will read more and they’ll enjoy reading more.

The thing with adding on diary and notepad and tracking apps or even an Ideas App is that people carry the Kindle everywhere. Its such a natural fit to have Journal for Kindle. 

Amazon needs to move quickly on the Kindle Apps front.

Nook and Txtr are jumping into eReader Apps

Txtr have released an SDK for their Txtr reader and for their online platform.

Nook are using Android and have said they are open to releasing an SDK.

1. They have the option of including all the Android Apps that people are already building. 
2. There must be an App Store in their plans because it’s strange to have Android and not have a browser or apps. There has to be a secret ‘flip on Internet and the Browser’ switch.

What that would lead to is the Kindle (with reading, and a few killer features like WhisperNet and Free Internet) taking on -

A whole eReader App Store that has thousands of Apps.

Crossword Apps and Word Games. Journals. Diet and Exercise Trackers. Reminder Apps. Book Shelves. Cooking Apps.

There would also be applications that are killer features in themselves - 

1. A really good Folders App.
2. Reflowable PDF (if someone can pull it off).
3. An Application that teaches kids how to read.
4. An app that doubles your reading speed.

You never know how good of a feature people will come up with.

The Time is Now, Mid-2010 will be too late

1. Google is getting Android into lots of eReaders. You can bet they already have a reading application in the works.
2. Nook and Plastic Logic will plug in Android apps built for cellphones and netbooks. They will add on eReader specific Android Apps. Probably in early 2010.
3. Apple’s iReader debuts early 2010.

2010 is going to be the Year of Reading Apps and eReaders with App Stores.

By end 2010, an eReader without Apps just won’t be able to compete. 

Lab 126 and its 300 or so people will be competing with not just Sony or B&N, but with thousands and thousands of developers creating applications we can’t even imagine. 

Take the Occipital Red Laser App - it scans barcodes and instantly gives you price comparisons. Apple (and everyone else) didn’t even think the iPhone Camera was good enough to scan bar codes. Now Red Laser is the #3 Paid App in the App Store. Ten thousand or so people buying it every day.

Perhaps it’s time Amazon let developers add killer features to the Kindle – Amazon, readers, developers all win.

Filed under: extensions Tagged: | ereader apps, kindle app store