“If you are going to try to steal Apple’s thunder just before its big Tablet announcement, you are going to have to do a little bit better than E-Ink Sudoku,” Erick Schonfeld writes for TechCrunch.
“Amazon is obviously concerned that the upcoming Apple Tablet, which will be able to function as a lush, full-color electronic reader for newspapers, books, and magazines might overshadow the black-and-white Kindle with its dot-matrix feel,” Schonfeld reports. “So what does Amazon do? It matches Apple’s rev-share with app developers by raising the royalty it gives publishers to 70 percent, starts to practically give away Kindles, and opens up the Kindle to developers.”
Schonfeld reports, “That’s right, there is now a Kindle Development Kit and there will soon be Kindle Apps. So instead of just books, you will be able to play Sudoku and scroll through interactive Zagat guides. Maybe you’ll be able to play Space Invaders or Pong, if the E-Ink technology the screen is based on can ever refresh fast enough for you to shoot the aliens.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote this morning, in case you missed it:
Amazon, if this isn’t a joke, it should be. Mr. Bezos needs to wake up, smell the coffee, and look out; there’s a steamroller a-comin’. Seriously, if you have a pet goldfish: Take it out of the water, place it on your kitchen table, and observe. That’s exactly what Amazon will look like the day Apple begins really selling books in iTunes Store. Now put your fish back in its bowl before PETA starts emailing us. As we’ve written many times before:
Kindle, Schmindle. Black and white, looking like John Dykstra superglued it together back in 1975… puleeze. This Kindle fantasy, which we’ve never bought into (the complete lack of actual sales figures from Amazon doesn’t help to sell us), is about to come crashing down for everyone else. Even without the rumored tablet, Apple already has long had two Kindle (hardware) killers, iPhone and iPod touch.
Apple’s current devices already offer e-reader functions, including Amazon’s Kindle app itself. And, unlike Amazon, Apple hasn’t sold just a meager 2.5 million devices with grand hopes of having added another paltry 500,000 during the holiday quarter. Apple will sell upwards of 20 million iPhone and iPod touch devices in the holiday quarter alone; 40 times the Kindle sales estimated by analysts. 40 times. To date, adding in the holiday quarter estimates, Apple has sold roughly 75 million iPhones and iPod touches combined, all of which, providing they are running at least iPhone OS 2.0, are capable of using Amazon’s Kindle app, not to mention a huge selection of other e-reader apps. 3 million Kindles vs. 75 million iPhones and iPod touches. Let’s face facts, folks, for quite some time now, the far and away #1 electronic reading device in the world is from Apple, not Amazon.
Lest he miss the train, Mr. Bezos should forget his amateurish, goofy, severely-limited hardware and focus all of his company’s attention on Amazon’s Kindle software for Apple hardware.
Awesome word of the day: Goofily!
What’s Amazon?
It’d be funny if the iSlate outsold the Kindle on Amazon’s top list this holiday season.
I dunno guys.
While Amazon’s attempt at a defense is kinda sad I’m starting to wonder about the Apple Tablet.
I mean, if those leaked pics turn out to be real it will be really really bad that the great Apple Tablet turns out to be an oversized iphone?
Is that the best design Jon Ive could come up with?
KINDLE IS D-A-I-D MEAT. LIKE A DOE IN DA HEADLIGHT OF DAT DERE ONCOMING LOCO MOTION LOCAMOTIVE.
I can tell by,… just kinda listenin’ to you that…..you’re crazy….e-heh….like, I’m good at THAT!
I’m looking forwards to the Kindle version of Hangman.
@Olternaut
All those images you’ve seen never came from Jon Ives. Those are other people’s imaginings. Wait for the real thing!
Wouldn’t the black and white be easier on the eyes than full color? Just wondering…
I wonder when iphone OS will surpass Window$ – it IS inevitable.
The truly sweet part of the story is that you need a Mac to gain entry to the developer community.
Hmmmmm, nice scorpion trap!
Great. I’ve waited a long time to play Pong – again.
When will you folks at MDN realize that you’re comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges?
Kindle is meant to be a book replacement. When you’re a heavy reader, a backlit screen really strains your eyes. It’s really frustrating to try to read books on a computer. That’s why all these e-readers use black and white screens: The technology is specially designed to not be backlit. No matter what media the iSlate/Tablet/Pad has, it will never replace a book. Because it will hurt people’s eyes.
The iPod and iPhone are great tools for multimedia, but the Kindle isn’t about multimedia. The apps are pretty meaningless; the selling point is that you can read without straining yourself. Unless Apple’s product has an e-ink display, it’s in a different product category entirely.
Wow, look at that awesome Soduku. It’s probably the most graphically intense, most awesome Soduku game I’ve ever seen on the planet. Thing make PONG look primitive. Great job Amazon, this will be the killer app for the Kindle.
Oh yeah, those amazons at Amazon are certainly shit scared. Trying to make an Apple iSlate/iPad/iWhatever killer! Good luck with that!
I think Amazon’s main reason for launching the Kindle has always been to jump-start the ebook industry in order to sell content, not turn itself into a hardware company. I hope for Amazon’s sake that they don’t start imagining that they can actually compete with Apple, because they obviously can’t. If they insist on trying, the result ain’t gonna be pretty. For Amazon, that is.
I never understood why MDN were such Kindle-haters. While I’ll agree that it’s not for everybody, it *is* a very nice device for the intended audience (e.g. people who enjoy reading). The Kindle has never competed with any Apple product, so, MDN, please stop being such dicks about this.
BTW, yes, I do own a Kindle, as does my wife, and my stepson who loaded up his Kindle before he recently deployed to Iraq. It’s an amazingly useful gadget to have over there, since it really does go a couple weeks between charges (which, incidentally, his iPod Touch does *not* do).
They should have released Breakout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(video_game)
I don’t think the Kindle (more like kindling) is supposed to be a competitor for the iPhone. Amazon’s problem is that the iPhone is so technologically amorphous. It’s almost the perfect device because it can be used for anything (good old Universal turing machine+). It isn’t ‘valenced’ to a singular purpose like the kindle. Ultimately the most flexible device, that competes well in whatever niches apps find for it, will win. WHy have fifty devices when you can have 1 that does what all these devices do and better? Amazon must kind of fear an iTunes annex for books that will put it under. They should maybe explore an exclusive arrangement with apple to become the itunes annex for books and fast. The kindle is facing an enemy that is vastly superior. The only up side to the kindle is the size of the screen. The tablet (islate) will put paid to that advantage anwyay.
I would rather read on a Kindle than any backlit screen – I still want a tablet just not for reading. The back light causes eyestrain.
I have to agree with some of the comments here re: comparing apples to oranges.
The kindle is very specific to a market segment – the book lover and avid reader. I think we have to take I to consideration as well that the kindle is at a price point based on it’s main function, an ebook reader.
The Apple tablet will undoubtedly cost 2 – 3 times the price of the kindle. As it won’t just be an ebook reader and it’ll be more powerful and capable and marketed to do a whole lot more than just read ebooks.
I think Amazons biggest worry is the content. If apple gets into the ebook market it will most certainly offer up some stiff competition for Amazon as Apple already have their iTunes and delivery methods that it provides. In THAT sense they fear the tablet. Not because their kindle is an inferior ebook reader compared to apples expected “multi-media” / tablet computer… But because the said tablet represent Apple jumping into their space as an ebook seller.
…. but Nature teaches us, again and again, that when you over-specialise, even small changes in the environment can kill you …. as in dead!
Amazon will survive.
Russell,
You would do yourself a big favor by taking a few hours and studying LCD technology.
Monochrome LCD screens do not require backlighting unless there is no ambient lighting. Almost all, but not all, color LCD screens require backlighting. This is inherent of LCD technology. It is very easy to understand once you come to understand how the liquid crystal elements work to produce and image.
Your ten year old daughter can understand this technology if shown by someone who in fact already understands it. To this date the only people I have found that understand it are about 1/5 of the people whose descriptions I have read of the workings of LCD technology. In otherwords, most people that write about it do not understand it at its fundamental level. And the way that they do “understand” it is incorrect.
Do yourself a favor and learn LCD technology. It is not difficult. But until you understand the very bottom level where polarization of light is discussed, you have virtually no understanding of any worth.