Will the next generation Kindle be an “iPad lite?” It’s hard to tell, but Amazon needs to address many issues to keep people from jumping ships and going to Apple and other Amazon Kindle competitors. Amazon is not going to deliver everything its customers are asking for. But it is likely that the company will be bringing color and video capability to the next generation Kindle. Taiwan-based Prime View International, which recently acquired E-ink, has recently displayed its color e-paper screens in a trade-show in Asia. While that doesn’t necessarily mean that Amazon will be on board, there is no logical reason for Amazon to not introduce a color screen Kindle.

Amazon and B&N both seem to have gotten a look at this technology. Let’s face it. B&N is not going to sit around and allow Apple iPad to become the top dog in the e-reader market. Not without a fight. Besides, the company has already a color navigation on its Nook. So it’s not too hard to see why the company may be exploring ways to add a color screen to Nook 2. The issue with Kindle is a bit different. Amazon was testing color screen Kindles a few months ago. It just did not find a way to manufacture such a device while keeping it affordable.

Many of us don’t want to worry about how we’d go about repairing our gadgets at the very time we are picking them up. But at some point things can go wrong, and it is essential to know how you are going to get your device repaired or replaced by the manufacturer. Amazon Kindle customers had a lot of issues getting their devices repaired in Kindle’s early days. Amazon did not have a Kindle repair service when it introduced the device to the market. That led to a lot of confusion and people complaining about the service they were receiving. Fast forward a few years, and you can have your device repaired for $99 fast.

The e-book reader market has awakened thanks to the efforts of companies such as Amazon and Sony. Now more companies are entering the market to get a piece of the pie. Samsung is another one of those companies that is trying to find its way in this market. The company has introduced another reader in Samsung E60 that enables its users to take notes on the go and use their device as some sort of a basic tablet. The device won’t have a 3G service to rely on at this point, but it does provide support for WiFi.

I don’t know about you but I still remember the day I ordered Amazon Kindle 1. I was one of many people who ordered the device as soon as it came out. It’s true that it took Amazon weeks to ship out the device and many of us did not know what exactly we were getting with Amazon Kindle. But the chance to play with a decent e-book reader was too much to resist. Fast forward a couple of years, and we are at the same point again, this time with Apple iPad. Apple iPad is not a pure e-book reader. It does not take advantage of E-ink technology and is certainly not as energy efficient as a Sony Reader or Kindle. Nevertheless, it is expected to outsell Amazon Kindle in a fairly short period of time thanks to the power of Apple’s marketing machine.

With Kindle, we knew we were getting an e-book reader. It was a fairly one-dimensional device designed for those who wanted to move away from paper books to e-books. The iPad is a whole other animal. It’s a multi-purpose device that can be used as an e-book reader, a gaming gadget, or a business management tool. While many are expected to pre-0rder the device today, that seems a bit risky to me. For starters, we don’t really know what we are getting with the iPad. Apple has been secretive about the capabilities and restrictions of the device. The fact that you can only order the WiFi model today is not good news either.

Credit: PC World

As Apple gears up towards releasing the iPad next month, its competitors are scrambling to come up with their own solutions to keep up with the company. We already know that Amazon is working on Kindle Touch (though no release date has been announced). The company is not stopping there. Amazon has no intention of going head to head against Apple alone. That’s why its forming partnership with other Apple competitors to mount a more serious challenge against Apple’s new creation. It seems Dell and Amazon have joined hands to bring Amazon Kindle to Dell Mini 5 (an Android tablet that aims to take on the iPad). Dell’s tablet is expected to have access to Amazon books, mp3 content, and videos.

Every Kindle fan has been wondering how Amazon is going to respond to Apple iPad. The iPad is not an e-book reader and does not take advantage of E-Ink screen technology. But the device has the marketing power of Apple behind it. The fact that there will be thousands of apps available for the device in iTunes does not hurt either. We already know that Amazon intends to release Kindle Touch in the near future but is it all a little too late?

Amazon has real reasons to be nervous about Apple iPad. Apple intends to manufacture 5 million units in the first half of 2010, and it could pass Kindle’s sales mark in just 3 months. While it may take Apple more than 3 months to beat Kindle numbers (3 million), the iPad is widely expected to become the next king of the hill in the e-reader market. The iPad may not be the best e-book reader on the market, but that won’t matter as Apple has positioned the device as “cool” and “revolutionary.” The curiosity factor is certainly there for many consumers.