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Tue, 09 Feb 2010 Amazon's Kindle gets ready to battle Apple's iPad

The next-generation Kindle and a next-next-generation one will take on the iPad

Harry McCracken, Technologizer

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So Amazon.com has bought itself a startup with an innovative touch-screen technology. The only logical assumption is that it intends to build a touch-enabled Kindle.

You’ve gotta think that it’ll take a while to incorporate the new technology into a future Kindle. And given that the last all-new Kindle shipped nearly a year ago, there are probably at least two future Kindles in the works: a next-generation one and a next-next-generation one.

Trying to figure out where the Kindle is headed was aways interesting food for thought, but it got even more interesting when Apple showed off the iPad last week. The current Kindle and the iPad are a study in contrasts: The Kindle is a monochrome, long-life device, button-driven built almost entirely for reading books; the iPad is a color, short-life, touchscreen Swiss Army Knife.

Click here for more Apple iPad coverage

But the only scenario in which the Kindle is unaffected by the iPad (and possibly iPad-like gizmos from other companies) is one in which the iPad flops almost instantaneously. That seems unlikely. So here are five possible ”Superkindles” (to steal New York Times times reporter Nick Bilton’s term).

1. The Ultimate E-Reader Superkindle

Until now, Amazon has always stressed that the Kindle is (to use a term I dislike) a purpose-built device, focused on being the best possible way to read electronic books. E-reading is only one of many things that the iPad lets you do, and it’s not even purpose #1. Rather than trying to broaden the Kindle’s capabilities, Amazon could decide to stay fixated on book reading.

Such a Kindle might incorporate a color screen, but it would probably be a power-efficient design such as one based on Qualcomm’s Mirasol technology, not an LCD. And even though Amazon is opening up the Kindle platform, the Ultimate E-Reader Kindle wouldn’t be built to be, say, a great gaming handheld. (For instance, it might still have physical buttons for turning pages.)

2. The iPad-Only-Better Superkindle

This is the opposite of Superkindle #1–a Superkindle that does try to do everything. It would need really good color, a really good touch-driven interface, and an app store that was irresistible to third-party developers.

Could Amazon build an iPad-like Superkindle that at least some folks thought was superior to the iPad? It wouldn’t be easy, but it could give it an OLED screen, build in a camera, or partner up with a more reliable wireless provider than AT&T. Or it could simply build something that was at least vaguely competitive, and then price it significantly lower.

NEXT: The Supercheapkindle, The Superkindle Everywhere

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Comments received


treadmill said on Tue, 09 Feb 2010

Worrying about the 2nd generation of the iPad. lol

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