Amazon and Android Dilemma
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Credit: @craignewark - Twitter
I have been a big fan of Craig (and his listing empire) for years now. When you hear powerful people such as him talk about Kindle for Android, you have to assume that Amazon is listening. So Amazon is going to bring Kindle to iPad, but it’s not going to be agile enough to develop an app for Android smart-phones? The challenges of developing Android apps are well-known. Let’s not assume that it’s going to be easy for Amazon to address some of those issues. At the same time, focusing only on Apple and forgetting about one of the fastest growing mobile platforms on the market seems a bit silly at this point.
Amazon has stepped up its efforts to market Kindle more effectively by spending some more money on TV commercials and encouraging people to test drive Kindle with no risks.We also know that the company is working with the developer community to give Kindle SDK a better chance of succeeding. But everyday that passes by, Amazon loses some momentum. While I don’t rule out an April surprise by Amazon, it’s tough to see what the company can do to stop Apple’s momentum (other than bringing Kindle app to as many platforms as possible, Android include).
The news that Amazon is planning to halt discounting bestseller e-books is not going to go down smooth with Amazon Kindle fans. We already knew a while back that e-book prices hikes were coming. The genie is truly out of the bottle for Amazon, and you can expect more publishers to make their case with Amazon to increase their e-book prices.
I do believe that Kindle 3 could be Amazon’s last stand in the hardware business. If Amazon bombs with that effort, it’s tough to see how it can bounce back from it. That’s why Amazon should take its time to make sure Kindle 3 is more than just a minor upgrade over Kindle 2. Amazon will be involved in the e-book industry for many years to come. But it does need to be more agile and innovative to get back some of its lost momentum in the e-reader market.
Your take: is iPad the Kindle killer many experts have predicted?
