I have talked about Amazon moving to a subscription-based business model for Kindle to help push it to the next level. The $359 that Amazon is charging for its eBook reader has been criticized by many folks as the reason behind Kindle’s modest growth over the past year. Kindle was supposed to explode into the market, and while it hasn’t done badly, Amazon is not getting an iPod-like push from Kindle. So I believe it’s time Amazon considered other business models for Kindle.

The subscription model can allow Amazon to offer the Kindle for free. By giving away the Kindle for free, Amazon can increase the adoption rate for its innovative e-book reader. In order to make that work however Amazon should try a monthly or annual subscription business model (which allows folks to access a certain number of books for free during the subscription period). So here is how it could work:

1. Design tiers of subscription: Gold, Silver, Bronze, whatever you may want call them. Allow Gold users to access the entire library of books on Amazon for $200 a year. You can limit the number of books available for free for lower tiers. Amazon has taken a similar approach with Amazon Prime, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Amazon went there.
2. Provide Premium Service for Kindle: Amazon can also charge folks for additional enhancements to Kindle (some of them can be free though). It can work but I would go for the third option.
3. Provide a platform for developers to enhance the Kindle experience: similar to iTunes apps. Amazon doesn’t have to be the provider of premium apps. They just have to have a platform for folks to use to create enhancements for the Kindle.
4. Use the affiliate program to create a Viral effect on the platform: let’s say I buy a book on Kindle and I like it so much that I decide to forward it to a friend. If the friend buys that book, I get a percentage of it. That is currently not possible with Kindle, but think about the potential.

There are millions of other things that Amazon can do to improve the Kindle experience (e.g. adding color to Kindle). Will it get done? No one can say for sure. One thing is for certain though. The Kindle will be significantly improved in the next couple of years (just like iPod has during its life-cycle).

Seriously. What can Oprah do for Kindle? Simple. Just endorse the heck out of the device. Now, I admit that I have never watched Oprah (except the time John Stewart showed Tom Cruise’s piece on his late night show). But I hear everything she touches just explodes as far as sales and adoption rate. Well, one would think that Amazon should be Oprah (paying her a lot of money) to endorse Kindle, right?

It’s actually happening already. Amazon is teasing its customers with a new video titled Oprah’s favorite gadget. Unless Amazon is dropping the ball big time, Oprah’s favorite gadget is the Kindle. If I were Amazon, I would’ve talked to Oprah sooner. Heck, I would’ve even gone to Barack Obama to endorse Kindle.

Now, I am a bit biased her, but Amazon Kindle will need mass adoption to continue. Amazon is currently struggling financially, and Kindle has been anything but a gamble for them. So, I hope this Oprah things woks out for them. Now here is the big problem: most folks are scared to spend money and they may not be ready to part ways with $350 of their hard earned money.

A colleague of mine and I got into an interesting discussion the other day that I thought is worth mentioning here. We were talking about the best thing you can buy for $200, and I told him that I thought Kindle was the best thing I had bought for $400 next to the iPhone. But iPhone is not really going for $400. If you count the service plan, you are paying well into a couple of thousands. Now here is my question. Is Kindle the best thing you can buy with $360 in your pocket? With the same money you can buy X-Box, Wii, various cell phones, an old junk car, and … I am assuming that you are going to use the money to buy something and not save up actually I think Kindle is up there if not at the very top. What’s your take?

The good folks of the U.K got some bad news today as Amazon is delaying the release to U.K. Interestingly enough, the problem seems to be the wireless coverage. In U.S., Amazon works with Sprint and its EVDO network. But things are very different in Europe. I don’t think the delay will be for too long, but as someone who had to count days to get my hands on my Kindle, I understand how difficult this news could be to the good folks in London, Manchester, and other U.K cities. Hopefully, Amazon will find the right wireless option for Kindle UK soon.

[story via Telegraph]

According to Wired Magazine, Newsweek is publishing four books on presidential and VP candidates, based on the coverage these guys have gotten in the past few months. These books  of pre-published articles and are tailored towards informing voters about these candidates.

Folks are complaining about the proprietary format of these books, and I am sure Newsweek could’ve gotten these books out in PDF format, but Sony reader does not have enough users to take advantage of these books. Now, if you are a voter, and you are trying to read a book on candidates this late in the campaign, I got to say, you should probably not vote or look for a better way to get informed. After all, it’s been very hard for me to avoid political news these days. You open up Digg.com, and you see 100s of news items on the election. You turn the TV on and it’s all about politics. I think what Amazon and Newsweek are doing is amazing, but people should stop complaining about the proprietary format and get on with it. You can’t have everything in life now can you. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair for Amazon to sell the books for cheap just for people to open them up and share the PDFs on P2P networks, now would it?

[story via Wired]

So with Amazon running a $100 off promotion on the Kindle (with Chase), there are a few people who want to jump in and take advantage of the current price as long as they can. A few days ago, with the Kindle rumor machine running wild, there were good reasons not to take advantage of this deal. But now that we can say that there probably won’t be a new Kindle any time soon, you may want to rethink your decision on this offer. It’s true that if you don’t have an urgent need for a Kindle, then you are better off waiting for Kindle 2.0. At the same time, Kindles make awesome holiday gifts, and you can’t wait till March 2009 to give someone Kindle as a Christmas present. So if you have a loved one who can use Kindle right now, then this offer may be right for you. Other than that, I don’t believe the offer is that attractive to potential Kindle buyers (unless you spend a lot of money on Amazon, which would justify getting the new feature rich Amazon credit card).

Kindle has been around for a while, but surprisingly a lot of people are finding about it these right now. When it was released, people were complaining about its lack of compatibility with PDF files (?) and its high cost. Now, the whole PDF issue was blown out of proportion as you can convert most PDF files to Kindle format and play it on your Amazon Kindle. The cost was high at first, but I find the $359 price tag to be reasonable, considering the free wireless service that you get with your Kindle. But now at $259 (the limited time price), you would expect people to stop complaining so much about Kindle. But here is the new complaint that is going around the net: a laptop does everything a Kindle does and therefore is a much wiser option.

Well, here is why Kindle TKOs a Laptop when it comes to reading:

• Portability: Even the lightest laptops can’t hold a candle to Amazon Kindle. Kindle is simply made for the portable life. If you are on the go all the time and you would like to keep up with your favorite newspapers, blogs, or books, Kindle is a hands down.
• Convenience: a laptop is great for reading ebooks that you already have, but it does not allow you to download new ebooks in less than 30 seconds (unless of course Amazon offers your favorite books in PDF format as well). Kindle on the other hand is linked to your Amazon account, and one can argue that buying from the Kindle store is the fastest way you can buy a book anywhere.
• Experience: I don’t know about you, but my eyes hurt after an hour of reading an eBook on my MacBook. I also can’t really take to bed and use it to read books before my asleep. With Kindle, it’s so tiny and convenient, that you can take it anywhere and read your book in any position, even when you are half asleep. Besides, I have never read a book on my laptop and said afterwards, “boy, it felt like I was reading a real book.”
• Price: Most laptops are more expensive than Amazon Kindle, and you wouldn’t buy a second laptop just to be able to read eBooks. Besides, Laptops don’t come with a wireless plan, so you have to take that into account as well.
• Battery Life: Amazon Kindle beats any laptop in the market in the battery life department hands down. No laptop can go for a week or even 4 days all the way without needing a recharge. If you are reading a book on your laptop, you’ll either have to be plugged in all the time, or you need to turn your laptop off after 4 hours MAX (if you don’t have your adapter with you).
• Features: comparing a laptop and a Kindle is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges. Kindle comes with features that are specifically designed for people who like to read, a lot. Whether it’s bookmarking, taking notes, or researching on Wikipedia, the Kindle has it all. A laptop is simply a laptop. It can do a lot of things, but it is not designed specifically for reading.

Am I suggesting that you should choose the Kindle over a laptop, if you don’t have a personal computer? Absolutely not. The Kindle is designed for people who read a lot of books and can use a separate device for that purpose. The Kindle can’t handle Microsoft Word or other software solutions, so if you need a laptop, you should get a laptop. That’s the whole point. A laptop is used for a lot of different things whereas the Kindle is used for reading (or listening to audio). That’s its purpose. It’s perfect for college students, but not so much for programming C#. Would you buy a car when you want the whole bike riding experience?

Good news folks. Amazon has finally dropped prices on Kindle by $100. Sort of… Amazon has just announced that if you get their Amazon Rewards Visa Card, you can get the Kindle for $259! In other words, you get $100 off the Kindle if you help out Amazon’s partner, Chase. I personally think it’s a decent deal as the credit card is not that bad at all. It also goes on to show that it’s not out of the realm of possibility for Amazon to offer these Kindles for much cheaper in the near future to boost sales. We shall see.

Amazon.com finally buckled under the pressure from its customers to drop its price on Amazon Kindle. The device that many of us bought for $399.99 and months of shipping, is now going for $359.99 and free 2-day shipping. Was it worth the wait? I don’t know as I couldn’t wait that long. I bought mine the minute I saw it on Amazon, and I have used mine way more than the $50 could make up for. How about you? If you haven’t bought your Kindle yet, get it or it may go out of stock again! You never know!

I made a point a few days ago on how Amazon needs to do a better job promoting their great device. While Kindle is a top gadget, it is surprising how tech savvy individuals have not either heard or used the device to the extent one may expect these folks to.

Today I had a chance to talk to a SVP of a reputable company about this great device, and to my great surprise he did not know what a Kindle was. He is a very technical person and follows innovative products all the time, so it was rather surprising he did not know what exactly Kindle was. No wonder why Amazon is not sharing those numbers with us. As great as Kindle is, one needs to accept that reading is not cool enough to most people in the U.S. A cool device such as Apple iPod Touch sells out immediately because people like to listen to music all the time these days. Unfortunately, the number of readers is dramatically less than the number of music listeners in the U.S. So that is probably why Kindle remains enigmatic but limited in terms of adoption rate.