7 Ways Amazon Could Make the Next Kindle Awesome
  BY Kit Eaton Today



Does Amazon have an exciting plan for Kindle 3? It's been keeping 
totally quiet
about the next-gen e-reader, but rumors and leaks have started 
sprouting that
suggest good things are on the way.  But how could Kindle 3 be 
made awesome?
This time last year we were talking about Amazon's Kindle 2--a 
refreshed version
of its original small-format electronic ink e-reader.  We looked 
at it, and
pronounced that Amazon had done an okay job--but it should do a 
better one with
the next-gen machine.  Since then Amazon's kept mum about its 
plans for the
device's future, and that's probably thanks to seeing what the 
multiplying
competitor devices are like, and to find out exactly what Apple 
had up its
sleeve.
  Now the iPad cat is out of the bag, and it looks like a serious 
threat to
Kindle's hardware and software model: The iPad does more, is 
better designed,
and Apple's pushing ahead with its own content deals for its much 
swisher iBooks
app.  So what's Amazon doing? Recent rumors suggest quite a bit: 
As Nick Bilton's
noting at The New York Times, it's bought up a small touchscreen 
tech company
that's developed a novel flexible touchscreen based on resistive 
sensors, but
that also supports multitouch.  That suggests a touchscreen 
Kindle is en-route,
and the tech even supports stylus touches so proper note-style 
annotations may
be possible.
  But exactly how could Amazon start with the Kindle 2, which is 
now an "okay"
device, and engineer the Kindle 3 into something awesome?
Update the Screen Tech
Last year we wondered about Amazon's chances with color e-ink.  
It would be a
transformational move for Kindle, making it into a seriously 
powerful device for
magazines and text books, and it would be a step toward the 
glossy screen that
iPads will offer.  But most tech commentators say a color version 
of the
electrophoretic e-ink tech Amazon uses in the Kindle is still far 
too expensive,
and still too early in development, for Amazon to include in a 
Kindle yet.
  Amazon could instead do two things to make Kindle 3's screen 
better: Swap
display tech, or seriously beef-up its monochrome e-ink 
performance.  Alternative
displays could be LCD or perhaps Pixel-Qi's clever dual-mode 
system that's half
like e-ink, half-LCD.  I don't think Amazon will do either of 
these, since LCD is
more power-hungry and Pixel-Qi is actually a bitter rival to 
E-Ink, which
Amazon's brought in-house.  So it'll have to improve the current 
e-ink
screen--refresh rate times would be the simplest target.  As 
would size.  Amazon
could easily ditch the two Kindle versions, and have a single one 
halfway
between normal and DX size.
  Update the Graphics Handling
This is an easy one--with a little motherboard and silicon 
tweaking, Amazon
could seriously improve Kindle's graphics handling powers, which 
are just
terrible at the moment.  The inclusion of some advanced GPU tech 
would slightly
sap the battery, but it would transform the way textbooks and 
illustrated books
>every handled.  And it would enable a nice-looking, and 
nicer-feeling Amazon Kindle
Bookstore experience too.
  Design So It Doesn't Look Like a Crappy Calculator
You know, the original Kindle was a design horror--with all the 
style appeal of
a non-brand scientific calculator from 1981.  Kindle 2's design 
was more
polished.  But only brought it up to the design standards of a 
1996 simple desk
calculator.  Now Apple's iPad is out, and it builds on the 
famously simple design
of the iPhone and the smooth chic of its unibody aluminum 
MacBooks.  It's
beautiful.  So is the Plastic Logic Que.
  All Amazon needs to do is hire a good designer, with a real 
feel for aesthetics,
and Kindle 3 could be good-looking too.  Consumers like 
nice-looking gizmos.
  Give it a Calculator, and Useful Add-ons Users Will Appreciate
Forget Kindle Apps--as I've examined before, they're unlikely to 
boost the
device's utility much, even with a color screen (or a monochrome 
one that at
least works a little faster.) Amazon needs to give Kindle a suite 
of
home-programmed powers, like calendars, email clients, decent 
basic and
scientific calculators, a crossword-solver and so on.  These are 
simple basics
that would really add utility for users.
  If Amazon were to go out on a limb, it could even do 
extra-clever stuff like
enabling 24-hour book loans between users.  Think how much that 
would benefit
college students?
Get the International Edition Right
This is a no-brainer.  Amazon needs to sort out proper multiple 
global roaming
deals with cell phone providers to get Whispersync working 
exactly as it does in
the U.S.--in other words, with the Internet browser enabled (key, 
if you're
going to enhance the screen tech.) It also needs to properly 
regionalize the
device, and sell it with multi-plug adapter wall warts and 
without the hassle of
shipping from the U.S.
  Without properly getting a global launch underway, Kindle is 
likely to remain a
largely U.S.-only business.
  Sort Out Wi-fi Plus Whispersync
Whispersync may be all very useful...b as we all know, cell-phone 
networks
don't reach everywhere (yet).  Although Wi-fi powers would be 
another drain on
Kindle's battery, they're easily managed with intelligent power 
management and a
dab of user smarts--and who'd complain about having to charge up 
your kindle
every three days or so, anyway?
Wi-fi would also help with the international edition's 
performance.  And it would
enable more of the always-on connectivity for apps that could 
boost its utility.
  Such as an email browser, or Exchange-enabled calendar.  This 
would place Kindle
3 on a par with Plastic Logic's Que.
  Re-price the bugger
Amazon's device is never going to be as multi-purpose as Apple's 
Swiss Army
Knife iPad, and indeed Amazon shouldn't try to make it so: It's 
just never going
to be able to compete with Apple.  Instead it should concentrate 
on serving the
e-book crowd better, and one simple way to do that is to price 
the Kindle 3
well.
  Somewhere far below the iPad's entry price, but around the 
Kindle 2's price
would be sensible (since it'll be delivering far more usability 
than Kindle 2,
but that edition is looking very jaded and overpriced now).  That 
way you're
establishing yourself as a force to be reckoned with in the 
e-readerstportable
media device without trying to compete with iPad.


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