Amazon Wants a Color Kindle. But Does It Need It?
By Marion Maneker
Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 10:05am
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Hand it to Nick Bilton at the New York Times' Bits blog: He's been scouring Amazon's (AMZN) job listings to discern its future plans for the Kindle. And though Bilton is more intrigued by the question of whether the next generation of Kindles will be multi-function computers, he makes a strong case that Amazon wants to get the Kindle in color forthwith:
One job opening in particular, for a Hardware Display Manager, tells the applicant that “you will know the LCD business and key players in the market.” The key point here is the word “LCD,” which means the Kindle is possibly exploring color (unless they are hiring an LCD manager to simply gain an understanding of the color-display market).
Other job openings include Wi-Fi specialists (the current Kindle has only a 3G wireless connection), and openings for someone to “lead the software development teams that develop and maintain the applications.”
For Bilton, the Kindle needs color, touch, and apps ASAP. In other words, Amazon better play catch up to Apple (AAPL) and the several Android tablets just over the horizon due to arrive late this spring. Bilton's probably right—and it's hard to see Amazon's pride not demanding that the company step up to the tablet computer challenge—but there's a case to be made that chasing Apple (and the others) is a shiny distraction.
The beauty of the Kindle is its purpose-built simplicity. It delivers a reasonable facsimile of print on paper. That facsimile is delivered with great ease over the wireless network with minimal fuss. If the iPad had preceded the Kindle, the Kindle would be an ideal disruptor. It would be the low-cost, no frills, get-enough-of-the-job-done alternative.
That's what the Kindle should still be. Don't chase color or apps. Keep it simple. Add better navigation and font display. Keep lowering the price until you get to $99. Make the E-ink screen better. A perfected Kindle won't have to deal with the mess that is Wi-fi and 3G. Face it, it will be three to five years before the iPad works well away from a fast Wi-fi connection. By that time, Kindle could own the reading space.
