We have all been waiting for Kindle 3 for months now. I started discussing Kindle 3 before K.indled was acquired by this website. At the time, everyone was hoping for a color-screen Kindle 3. While Amazon has all but ruled that out, it may be getting ready to release the device. That could be one reason it is heavily discounting refurbished Kindle 2 units. Rick Broida may be right after all. There are indications that Amazon may be getting ready to get out of hardware business altogether. We are likely to see Kindle 3 (and Kindle lite), but a Kindle 4 does not seem like a sure bet (unless Kindle 3 sells beyond Amazon’s expectations).
To be fair, Amazon has made a decent effort to improve Kindle’s software and embrace social media. It fully understands the power of Book 2.0, which is why Kindle 3 is expected to give publishers a better chance to share their interactive books with the world. Kindle hardware has Jeff Bezos’ support going for it at this point. But that won’t last for too long if Amazon can’t make decent profits from each Kindle hardware sold.
B&N has been more creative with its nook strategy. It has not only matched Amazon by bringing nook software to various mobile platforms, it is going after the education market hard (something that Kindle DX was supposed to do). At this point, B&N looks more likely to have a few more generations of nook than Amazon does with Kindle.
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1 comment
#1JoshJuly 24, 2010, 9:42 pm
No way they are getting out of the device market. Sure, there may be stiff competition, but the real prize isn't device sales, it's book sales. Getting as many Kindles as they can into consumer's hands virtually assures greater and greater purchases of books in Amazon's proprietary format. I liken the strategy to that of Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft. Each company is willing to let their console go at a price where profits are slim in order to get people hooked on their brand. Who knows how many Kindles they've sold in July, but my guess is that it's huge. Lower priced/improved DX, lower priced 6" global, and lower price 6" refurb US all in the same month? Ipad doesn't stand a chance in the long run. Sure it's cute for reading books now because Ipads are cool. But no one is going to do long term reading on an iPad. It's just a novelty. Kindle and Nook are the future of ebook readers and right now it looks like Amazon is headed in the right direction.
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