When Amazon launched the Kindle last week, it was met with mild enthusiasm by most quarters, but in some groups it received a reception usually reserved for Apple Products.
The key areas of praise for the device was around the interface, the new e-ink screen, the long battery life, New York Times to go, and tons of free content. What is most interesting to me is that it is a mobile application device, not updated by a USB cable from your desktop (or notebook), but by the standard Sprint EVDO card buried in the device. This makes it the first single(ish) purpose mobile tablet on the market. More importantly it came from the content channel, not the technology channel (like Sony Reader) so it launched with a large back catalog for users to enjoy. Amazon also has the benefit of it's electronic presence, the ideal launch-pad for this reader.
This enablement from Amazon includes the estore to purchase your books and subscriptions (via EVDO). There is no subscription fee from Sprint you just use the platform as you need to. This means that Sprint gets a cut from content deal, a kind of reverse iphone business model. Like iTunes, Amazon as bought together an ecosystem that instantaneously allows the user to enjoy the Kindle unlike the Sony Reader that needs you to assemble the experience.
The Amazon Kindle is a mobile application platform albeit a fixed function reader. This marks 2007 as another year where we saw a big movement in mobile applications.
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