

Is Kindle The Next RIM? - latch
http://openmymind.net/2012/4/2/Is-Kindle-The-Next-Rim/

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ether
First, NO. Amazon is arguably the MOST innovative company of our time.

Second, Kindle is a product, and RIM is a company. You're comparing two
different things not comparable.

Third, I think Amazon's rationale in not innovating the hardware that much is
that it's not really worth it to move too fast. They own the mindshare for
online bookstore so they don't really need to iterate very fast. All they need
to do is make apps for different devices, and look at the trend. Probably they
will come up with an entirely different type of reading device based on what
they learned by building apps on different platforms. The bottom line is, they
don't look like they're innovating on the hardware side because they are not,
and I think that's a wise thing, when everyone's still trying to figure out
where this is going.

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bane
"Third, I think Amazon's rationale in not innovating the hardware that much is
that it's not really worth it to move too fast."

I think Amazon's approach is interesting if you consider that they appear to
be trying to commoditize the Kindle as fast as the technology allows. It's not
just simple market competition, they seem to lead in price and tablets are
just a different kind of beast. I think it's the realization that book
purchases are far more lucrative.

Besides you can make a nice device and get $20 in profit on it and fewer
customers buying e-books with it, or you can make a cheap device and get $15
in profit on it but three times the number of customers buying it.

The rumor of the Kindle eventually becoming a free item makes all kinds of
sense to me. Imagine a promo, "Buy 5 books get a free Kindle". I'd have
Kindles lying all over my house.

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kinleyd
The title of this post may be a bit extreme, but I do agree that the Kindle
software could do with a face lift. A bigger effort on the UI/UX front is
necessary, IMO.

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hannuraina
agreed. however, it is relatively simple to sideload a new launcher to take
the place of the horrific default.

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kinleyd
Yes, that's mostly all that needs to be done. Everything else is good enough,
even if not perfect, and the MEMS screen is as close to a book as I've seen so
far.

