I have heard a lot of people complain about the number of blogs that are available for subscription on Kindle. After all, people like to read anything they like on their Kindles and not be limited to Boing Boing or Slash Dot. But the truth is, you can read any blog you want on your Kindle for free! Thanks to the little miracle service called BlogLines. All you have to do is add your feeds to your Bloglines account and then use your Kindle browser to read them on a daily basis.

But here is the bigger problem. Not all blogs are meant to be read on Kindle. Those that are image heavy or not code compliant make look awkward on Kindle. Now if you are hoping to get the latest industry number from a report on a text heavy blog, then Kindle will do just fine. But as of now, Kindle is not yet ready for Prime time for blog freaks like me. Besides, who doesn’t want to monetize their blogs with Kindle. Right now, there is no easy way to monetize your blog on Kindle store. But industry insiders are telling us that the plan is to introduce a blog/feed solution for publishers to monetize their content. If that is true, then a whole lot of people are going to make a buck or two with this device, and all this would make Kindle even more attractive, but until then, I am going to stick with Bloglines and avoid those subscription fees (let’s hope Amazon doesn’t block Bloglines).

The U.S. government supporting companies such as Amazon with their digital transformation efforts? It’s never going to happen, right? Well, I think it’s worth considering. We all talk about the Green movement to save the planet and take cars out of the roads and replacing them with Hybrid vehicles. I hear all about bank and insurance companies claiming that their paperless approach saves the planet. That is all fine and dandy. What I don’t understand is the credit that Amazon and other E-ink device makers don’t get for their efforts to convert people from using physical paper books to digital books.

I know, we are not there yet. Kindle or other e-book readers are not advanced yet, but with the improvements that I have seen in the iPod, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to have an eBook reader in a year or two that pretty much does everything you can do with a book. I am talking about a glorified Adobe Acrobat like ebook device, with color and all the bells and whistles. Maybe instead of spending on things that don’t matter, the government could give tax breaks to people who bought this more expensive eBook reader. I know a lot of people talk about the experience of reading paper books and how rich it is, but at the end of the day, a whole lot of people (especially the younger generation) would be more open to getting a cool gadget like Kindle to read their books, do their homework, and so on than going with paper books. Maybe it’s just me being too optimistic about a little device that is cool but not essential. But at the end of the day, if insurance companies are taking credit for going paperless, maybe Amazon and its rival companies should get proper credit as well.

I know folks like to use “X-killer” to get people to read their articles. We have had so many iPod killers and now Kindle killers that it’s a surprise that Kindle is still alive. But in truth, IREX is a poor attempt to challenge Amazon for the eBook market supremacy. According to Forbes, the screen is much bigger, and the E-ink technology used with this device is more advanced than the one used with Kindle, but IREX is simply more expensive and still doesn’t come with Wireless features (though one is in the works to be released very soon). And the price tag of $700+ is simply very attractive to most eBook users, right? I know how much grief Kindle got for $400 price tag, so I wonder who will pay $800 for a device that is not that much better than Kindle in one area (Ink).

I did like the Plastic eBook reader much better, but I am certainly hoping that Amazon will improve the E-ink technology used on Kindle 1.0 with the introduction of Kindle 2.0 later this year (or early next year). Just out curiosity, how many of you actually would spend that kind of money ($800 or so) on an eBook reader?

[Via Forbes]

I was playing with my iPhone the other day after reading an article about advertising companies that specifically target devices such as the iPhone. So I thought ot myself. Can that be the future of Kindle? There is no question that the potential is there. I have wondered how Kindle can improve their platform to offer more functionalities and make improvements that we are all waiting for such as better design, enhanced Internet connection, and the Kindle SDK. But at the end of the day, in Kindle Amazon has a device that has direct access to you and I, almost everywhere we go. Sure. We don’t take our Kindles everywhere like we do our mobile phones, but that trend is soon going to be changed with new better version of Kindle. Enabling non-intrusive advertising on Kindle can enable Amazon to sustain the platform and push it to the next level, maybe even dropping the price. We are probably a year away from such feature, and Amazon may choose to never introduce it, but I wonder if Kindle users are willing to accept limited advertisement if it means lower book prices or a lower price for the device.

So I was checking out the DEMO site to figure out what this whole BizEquity thing was about (a friend of mine told me about this site), and I see that the Plastic eBook reader is going to get some more coverage at that conference. I posted a note about the reader a few days ago, and I think it’s a great device. But I am not really sure if it can hold its own against Kindle without Wi-Fi.

I do like the fact that it shows Amazon what it can do with its Kindle device. There is no question that Kindle can be designed better, and I am sure Amazon knows that as well. Kindle right now looks like a device that was made in 2000. It’s OK looking, and it does what it needs to do, but Plastic looks like the device from the future, even though Kindle is actually the real thing. So one would hope that Amazon’s watching these guys and learning some pointers when it comes to design.

Well, here is their presentation. Enjoy!

If you haven’t been paying attention, Amazon seems to be juggling between multiple strategies to make the Kindle store more relevant. The Kindle store is great if you are a heavy Kindle user, but at the end of the day most people search for books on the normal Amazon store and not the Kindle store. Amazon seems to be introducing Kindle books sooner or at the same time (as they are doing with Brisingr) as paperback books to encourage people to pick them up from the Kindle store. I think releasing books earlier to the Kindle platform would be brilliant strategy to boost Kindle sales. After all, if you can skip the shipping process, and get books 2 weeks earlier than you would at bookstores, all of a sudden Kindle doesn’t look that expensive. We shall see if this strategy works out for Amazon but it’s certainly not that risky.

What are your thoughts on this strategy? Would you consider buying a Kindle if it meant you getting books 2-3 weeks earlier than most people?

As Amazon tries to sell more Kindle with various promotions, I thought I’d ask you guys your thoughts on possible Amazon Kindle promotions that could be on the horizon for us.

 Loading …

Wired has a story on Kindle which is quite intriguing. It seems both Cindy Mccain and Michelle Obama have been working double shift on their biographies, and those will be released first to Kindle users. Now that is a brilliant idea if it was used for more serious books. Think about it. Let’s say you are a programmer, and you can get the latest book about Flex 4 on Kindle a month before it comes out. Doesn’t that give you a clear edge over those who don’t have Kindle?

When a company such as Amazon introduces a revolutionary device that can be a game changer in a market such as the e-book market, it is only logical to expect other companies to jump in and challenge them with their own devices. Well, the one from Plastic Logic is about to challenge Amazon Kindle for a piece of a pie in the ebook market. This device which was prototyped at DEMO is so thin and wide, that it puts Kindle to shame. It looks exactly like a page from a book. The only downside is that it does not come with wireless or wi-fi capability, but I am utterly encouraged by what it is possible with the ebook readers these days. One thing is for sure. If this device is priced in the range of $300-$400, you can’t expect a lot of people to get it if it doesn’t come with Wi-Fi capability.
Via Wired

Before I start talking about Kindle Share, I need to be clear that such service does not exist today. It may in the near future as Amazon plans the release of Kindle 2.0, but so far we have not heard any rumors about this future being included in the near future. But a feature like Zune music share seems to be such a good fit for Kindle. I have read numerous books on my Kindle, and there have been numerous instances when I have wanted to share what I was reading with a colleague or friend on their Kindles, but that is not easily possible at this point. I don’t know about you but Kindle would be even more addictive if you could use it as a viral device. I would assume that Amazon can even increase their sales through Kindle store with this feature.

The main challange for implementing such feature is having a connected device (which Kindle certainly is). So if Microsoft can pull it off with Zune, there should be no problem for Amazon pulling that off for Kindle. Maybe they are working on it for Kindle 3.0 or maybe it is already planned for Kindle 2.0. Regardless, this is an area that Amazon needs to address to achieve iPod level success with the Kindle product line.