The $99 iPhone is heavily subsidized, there could (and quite possibly will) be subsidized e-readers at some point.

The most expensive part of the Kindle (as I understand it) is the “e-paper” screen. Seems like this could “easily” be replaced with a color screen for those who want such a thing, along with decreased battery life probably. But some of us actually LIKE the reflective screen, and the two heavy book readers I showed mine to recently both ooohed and aaahed as soon as they saw it, before I had even done anything beside bring some text up on it.

My life doesn’t revolve around phone calls (and I’ve gone to some lengths to keep it that way). I was just remarking recently that I’d rather have a phone capability, even a primitive one, added to the Kindle, than Kindle capabilities added to a phone.

What are we dealing with here: Small power sipping general purpose CPU, gigs of memory, external interface, battery and display, various kinds of radios for GPS, Cell, WiFi and other data, and other gimmicky add-ons like motion detectors, cameras, thermometers, pulse and blood pressure monitors, whatever floats your boat. But all that might just as well describe a Netbook, an e-reader or a cell phone. There is no particular advantage (except to the likes of AT&T or Verizon) to pigeon hole such a device as a cell-phone or a not-cell-phone. As is the case now with the free-fall in GPS hardware, the ability to make phone calls (which boils down to a chip or two plus anything with a microphone and speakers) needs to be seen as a “peripheral” to whatever form-factor your small computing device(s) takes.

It’s time for the hegemony of “plan” linked phones to come to an end.