Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

New York Times write a truly inane article on a ‘Kindle hiring spree’ and a forthcoming Kindle 3.

Their evidence comprises of -

1. An alleged spurt in Lab 126′s job openings. Lab 126 is the company that makes the Kindle and is almost certainly working on Kindle 3.
2. Comments from anonymous sources that Amazon is meeting with publishers regarding putting games on a new version of the Kindle. The sources don’t specify dates.

Let’s start with the part the NY Times make a real mess of.

Using Job Listings is not a good way to gauge the near future

NY Times write -

Another listing for a “Software Development Test Engineer,” also known as an S.D.E.T., suggests that a product needs to be tested. These engineers usually join a team later in a product cycle; their role is to write software that tests already existing programs, in some instances trying to break the applications, to make sure they are ready for consumers.

Well, the notion that an SDET joins a team later in the product cycle is nonsense. Most of the testing work is later in the product cycle – However, an SDET is present and has to be present throughout. Most good teams won’t sign off on the product specifications until the SDET has signed off on it.

In fact, here’s a comment from Antares that sums it up brilliantly -

Regarding SDETs–it’s simply not true that they’re hired at a later stage in a development project.

Many companies, like Microsoft, Expedia, and almost certainly Amazon as well, routinely hire SDETs to work closely in conjunction with developers from the project’s inception. The thinking is that testing can’t just be an afterthought–it has to be an integral process that spans the entire lifetime of the product. If you only start testing the product a few months before it ships, you’re probably too late.

In other words, trying to predict Amazon’s market direction based on the fact that it’s hiring SDETs is pretty much like reading tea leaves.

Then we have the obvious mistake of assuming that a job advertised now and filled over the next 3 to 6 months has bearing on a product released this year. That’s highly unlikely.

Again, a comment from JoeT points this out -

I think the author’s conclusions (speculations) aren’t likely.

If Amazon is hiring now, these new folks won’t be impacting Kindle in the near future.

Kindle 3 would need very high levels of testing and it’s probably going to be done by people who have been familiar with it right from when it was conceived. That would mean people who’ve been around since when Kindle 2 was released or earlier.

It’s the New York Times – you’d expect them to actually understand what they’re writing about and not speculate blindly.

Anonymous sources and games for Kindle 3

The last paragraph of the article has a vague, unsubstantiated claim that Amazon is looking to put games on the Kindle 3 (the ‘new’ kindle).

It tells us absolutely nothing and even what it does say is unclear – Why would Amazon talk with Publishers to put games on the Kindle? Shouldn’t they be talking to game studios and game developers?

What these new job postings really tell us

Close to nothing.

Job postings since iPad was released -

1. 38 postings since April 3rd.  
2. Testing related positions - 4 related to Software testing, 1 related to hardware reliability.
3. Design and Program Management related positions – 8. 
4. Developers – 7.

There is no ‘late rush to hire testers to finish the testing of Kindle 3′.

Firstly, such a thing doesn’t exist – testers are not hired right before the release of a device to do testing on the finished product. Secondly, NY Times cherry picked 2 testing related positions out of 38 total positions and made it seem most of the positions are testing related. Actually, only 5 of the 38 positions are testing related.

If the hirings by Lab 126 (post iPad release) indicate anything at all (and they probably don’t) it’s probably one of -

1. Amazon deciding on a new member for the Kindle family and setting up a team of 7 to 8 developers, 7 to 8 designers, and 4 to 5 testers to create this device.
2. Amazon beefing up existing Kindle teams.

Job postings since iPad was announced -

1. 68 postings since January 27th.
2. Testing related positions – 7 related to software testing, 1 related to hardware testing.
3. Design and PM – 13 positions. 
4. Developers - 18.
5. Obviously, some positions must have been filled by now – so this is approximate.

Looking at these it’s again clear that far more designers/program managers and developers are being hired than testers. There is no ‘late rush to hire testers’ and it doesn’t indicate a Kindle 3 is about to be released.

There may very well be a Kindle 3 on the way.

However, NY Times’ poorly thought out analysis isn’t a groundbreaking scoop on the Kindle 3. No one knows when Kindle 3 will arrive and that’s probably how Amazon likes it.

The only conclusions to be drawn from all this Lab 126 hiring is that Amazon is still adding resources to the Kindle Team. It’s possible (and in my opinion highly probable) that they recently decided to build a new Kindle (or to be more precise a new Kindle product line). Also, Kindle 3 may or may not be imminent – However, Amazon are making it clear with all this hiring that it won’t be the last Kindle.

Filed under: kindle 3 Tagged: | kindle 3, kindle insights