Is the Kindle Finally Ready for the Web?
If you own a Kindle, you also own a mobile Web browser. But chances are you never use it. That’s because it’s a lousy experience, and one Amazon does its best to keep away from users (hint: look in the gadget’s “experimental” menu).
But maybe Amazon is ready to rethink the Web.
Michael Calore notes a job opening at Lab126, Amazon’s consumer products unit that built the Kindle, for an engineer to help build “an innovative embedded web browser.”
It’s possible that Amazon (AMZN) is thinking about something other than the Kindle here. But a decent Web browser for the e-book reader is long overdue.
I understand why Amazon didn’t push the browser when it rolled out its first device in 2007–it had other priorities–but at this point, having a wireless device that only grudgingly accesses the Web makes no sense. And it certainly won’t fly once the Apple (AAPL) iPad ships next month.
That said, if Amazon does add a full-fledged browser to the Kindle, the ripple effects will be pretty significant.
I assume, for instance, that adding a real browser requires a conversation with AT&T (T), which is currently providing “free” wireless coverage for the device. The carrier’s coverage doesn’t tax its system very much right now, since Kindle users only really need to go online to download new books. But if they could actually use the Web, the equation changes.
And a real Web browser means publishers who are selling subscriptions to their titles via the Kindle will have to rethink that strategy, too.
I don’t get the point of paying $13.99 a month for a subscription to the New York Times (NYT) on a Kindle to begin with. But if you can get a decent version of the paper for free–and updated in real time–via the Web on the same machine, then there’s no point at all.
The Times is already working on a Web pay wall, of course. But adding a real browser to the Kindle may push other publishers to think even harder about walling off their stuff, too.
Comments
Kindle quite simply doesn't stand a chance against the iPad, unless they refresh the technology VERY significantly, such as by adding a color display and a very good webkit (safari, firefox, chrome) type browser at the very least (and even then it has no apps).
Posted by Homebrewer at March 9th, 2010 at 1:56 pmI don't think Amazon could or should try to match up against the iPad feature for feature – I think the way to go is with cheaper devices that are still primarily single-purpose.
Posted by PKafka at March 9th, 2010 at 2:37 pmError in this article. The Kindle downloads books thru Sprint's network, not AT&T. As one who has a personal smartphone thru Sprint, and a business-provided Blackberry thru AT&T, I'm grateful that Amazon decided to hook up with Sprint and not AT&T.
Posted by wowo at March 9th, 2010 at 5:25 pmThe Web is a very basic feature. It ran on computers 20 years ago. Today any device maker can use Apple's open source browser core, which weighs in the same as just 1 book, and runs on all architectures, and there is no cost to them at all. That's why you see it in all the smartphones and in Google Chrome and in Adobe products. It's free. It's compatible with the modern HTML5 Web. It can not only show Web pages, it can run Web apps. The native apps on Apple devices are an optional extra, an alternative to the free and open Web.
Kindle's problem is the lack of a color screen. Not only is the Web in color for almost the whole of its 20 year life, but so are 50% or more of the books in the bookstore. iPad is the first device that can support all of the books ever published. That's a key feature, same as how iPod could hold all the music that's been published. Books have had hyperlinks in them for 15+ years, a book reader needs to make those hot and take the user out to a world class view of the Web. Am I supposed to read a book on Kindle, encounter a hyperlink, and type it into my iPhone?
Most of the books sold for Kindle were pulp fiction: romance novels, sci-fi, and murder mysteries. That's a miniscule part of the bookstore.
There's just no getting around the color screen and the Web. That still leaves out 98% of iPad features.
Posted by JohnDoey at March 10th, 2010 at 1:30 amAmazon launched the Kindle with Sprint, but switched to AT&T last fall.
Posted by PKafka at March 10th, 2010 at 3:27 am