A challenge to iPhone and the WebKit juggernaught?
This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 14 Aug 2008, by Gary Edwards.
The big picture behind the Kindle involves three facets:
1. Amazon's wireless commerce infrastructure: People probably underestimate how much of the innovation it took to bring the Kindle to market wasn't in the Kindle itself. Sure, you can always buy something wirelessly with your PC or smartphone. Even from Amazon. But this is very different from that kind of buying because of...
2. Network and Cost Embedding: The Kindle represents the first time a task-specific, commerce-oriented device (it's primarily for consuming text but MP3s and some images work on it, too) came with wide-area wireless connectivity transparently and freely built in. Pretty much all other digital devices that promise to work anytime, anywhere (OK, this only works where the WhisperNet is available) require both user involvement and expense to get the connectivity working. With the Kindle, you just turn it on. No configuration is ever required to get the connectivity working and all the cost is absorbed by Amazon. You'd think that in order to subsidize that kind of wireless infrastructure cost, you'd have to pay more for the product, much the same way you end up paying more to buy something online because of the additional expense of shipping. But...
3. Reduced prices: I've yet to encounter a book in Amazon's Kindle Store that doesn't cost significantly less than its physical counterpart. I've bumped into and purchased some books (e.g., Ken Follet's World Without End) and saved more than 70%.
A challenge to iPhone and the WebKit juggernaught?
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