Kindle 2: Gateway Drug to the Middle Web

It Exists Somewhere Between a Mobile Phone and a Laptop

Posted by Dan Shust on 03.12.09 @ 10:34 AM

Dan Shust

Over the past few weeks some of my co-workers shared their brand-new Kindles with me. I was interested again. The product design, while not perfect, is a step in the right direction. It is sleeker and the controls appeared to be better arranged. The screen was sharper. I placed my order.

New Kindle

Additionally, the "experimental" features are pretty interesting. I don't think I'll ever use the robotic text-to-speech function, but having access to a web browser (albeit a very simple one) can be useful (especially if you don't have an iPhone or a broadband modem for your laptop). Speaking of the iPhone, Amazon has also released a Kindle App, which allows you to read books on the popular device (but not magazines and newspapers yet) and even keep your place synced between your Kindle and iPhone/iPod Touch as you read. Nice.

What makes this new Kindle truly important isn't what it does today but what it represents for tomorrow. First, let's look at the form factor of the Kindle: the size, the thickness, the design. It's flat, not a clamshell. Then, the functionality: built-in 3G internet access, automatic syncing to other devices, etc. It really is a unique device, existing in a space between mobile phones and netbooks/laptops. The Kindle plays in the Middle Web.

You probably haven't heard much about the Middle Web, but it's coming. It's right around the corner. It will be built on the demands for new experiences for new devices (imagine the love child of a Kindle 2 and iPod Touch). Imagine how such a device (if priced right) could become the de facto standard way in which most people experience the internet -- messaging, websites, video, social networks, music, etc. These new devices would represent the first class of computers that truly work equally as well when you are sitting on the couch as they do in the shopping aisle. (Oh yeah, I guess you could read books on them, too.)

I've had my first taste. Bring on the strong stuff.

~ ~ ~
Dan Shust is director of emerging media at Resource Interactive, where he mans the research-and-development lab. He blogs at resource.com/wethink and danshust.com, and you can follow him on Twitter, @getshust.

7 Comments

  By YuriyBoykiv | Cliffside Park, NJ March 12, 2009 10:46:39 am:

Kindle has revolutionized the way we read books by combining "digital" and traditional book readers. One Citibank analyst projects Kindle sales to reach $1 Billion in 2009, which would constitute 4% of the Amazon sales - this is major.
Having said that, I still do not have a $359 device and I am more inclined to use the iPhone Kindle app, solely for cost and convenience reasons. The next step for the Kindle revolution is to add more features, such as TV, videos and, maybe phone functions. That would be a great device!

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  By jkantor1 | St. Petersburg, FL March 12, 2009 12:36:07 pm:

The Kindle is exactly what won't work - a clunky, over-priced gadget for a dying niche. Most importantly, it ignores convergence.

But don't expect Apple to miss the opportunity to create an iReader.

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  By welshjs | Ottawa, ON March 12, 2009 03:24:07 pm:

Not sure I "get" the benefit of this device over simply having one of those cheap sub-notebooks you can get these days for $300-400.

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  By kfrance | Topeka, KS March 12, 2009 03:24:22 pm:

Why I haven't boutght a kindle and won't until Amazon figures something out. My husband reads lots of books. He goes to the public library and checks out about 5-6 at a time and reads them in a 10 day to 2 week period. He gets them at the library instead of buying them because he is not a book collector, he is an avid reader. He doesn't feel the need to put a book on his shelf when he is done with it...if he really wanted to read it again, he would return to the public library. When I first heard about the Kindle, I thought it would be a perfect gift for him for Christmas. Until I found out that you have to "buy" the books to read on them for $9.99 or thereabouts. But my husband doesn't want to own them. He wants to read them. Amazon should come up with a subscription type service. Something like Netfliks, where for a flat monthly fee, you can "check out" one or two books at a time and then we you are done reading them, you "return" them by perhaps deleting them and then you can get one or two more at a time, whatever the monthly subscription fee allows. That way he can get all of the benefits of kindle, without having to expend the money for books he doesn't want to keep. I would buy the Kindle for my husband when Amazon offers that kind of application. Until then it is just an interesting thing to us.

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  By rdurst | Dunstable, MA March 12, 2009 03:57:01 pm:

After a number of false starts in the category, Kindle has clearly commercially validated a new form factor. Since Kindle connectivity supports both 'packaged' content, like ebooks, and 'interactive' web content it is likely to morph into a new class of information appliance. The major question now is the consumer tradeoff between color conventional displays and black and white e-paper displays. Is this enough to differentiate 'e-reader' appliances from smartphone and notebook alternatives?

A more interesting question is how the new form factor will affect the media model. VCR's - which both play and record - were essentially used only as playback devices for prepackaged media (videos). Although this radically changed the monetization model for produced video titles it wasn't until proliferation of the DVR (TiVo) that time-shifting occurred. This has disrupted the "network scheduled content" model (ABC, etc) and is rapidly replacing it with a 'branded media' model (Fox, HBO, etc).

I expect that e-readers will accelerate the shift toward on-demand multi-format media "stores" Apple currently owns this space with iTunes and their 'e-reader' device will likely cement the niche.

Rob Durst
Technology and Business Development Consultant
www.durstgroup.com

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  By akransdorf | New York, NY March 12, 2009 04:02:07 pm:

It looks like those of you who don't own a kindle don't get it. The screen is completely different from a computer or iPhone. It's a joy to read on and a great way to carry around multiple books without breaking your back. With respect to a subscription service, I hope that never happens to writers.

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  By craigcooper | craigcooper.com, NY March 12, 2009 05:44:08 pm:

More great news for eye doctors!

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