Kindle: Loosing its spark

When Amazon.com, unleashed, its eBook reader to the world; I was thinking, “Heck. One more device, another adoption curve.” At the same time, epublishers like Zinio were skimpering around to get digital magazines on the iPhone and other devices.

Seriously, why a eBook reading device when just a reader can suffice? Now, it might well be too late for Amazon. Barnes & Nobles recently released its own eBook reader for the iPhone. Whats more? They are already offering more than 700,000 books since day one. These include more than a half-million public domain books from Google which can be downloaded for free.

Barnes & Noble didn’t even need to develop the application. They got most of the technology done from Plastic Logic. On the other hand, Platic Logic will launch its own eBook reading device in 2010.

Lets hope this time the players get it right this time. No matter what Apple and Amazon like to think - one file many devices is the way forward. Unfortunately for Amazon, unless they match what is on the table - Kindle is going to fizzle out.