Amazon Cracks Open the Kindle

Post by jgamman » Thu, Jan 21, 2010, 8:41 AM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #3

Can someone venture some guesses as to what types of apps will be created? That screen seems like a terribly limiting factor for apps...

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 21, 2010, 9:00 AM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #22

skywalker wrote: post #14

"We've heard from lots of developers over the past two years who are excited to build on top of Kindle" So, why didn't they do nothing for two years? One week before Apple supposedly will announce the iTablet, Amazon creates a press release saying a limited beta of the Kindle SDK will start next month ! If you are the market leader, why would you wait two years for yours competitors? Doesn't make sense to me.

I get the impression that most product teams at Amazon contain about 5 people. I love Amazon, btw, I just think they keep the teams lean and do amazing things.

Post by mcobrien » Thu, Jan 21, 2010, 9:02 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #19

As I'm reading it, they're going to charge 15 cents per megabyte to deliver the app itself to the device. That cost will be deducted from the app price, and the remainder is what will be split 70/30 with developers. They cap over-the-air delivery at 10 meg. Anything over that is downloaded to user's computer, then to kindle via usb. Cumbersome. So you could have up to $1.50 of the app price deducted for delivery fees…

Post by revorad » Thu, Jan 21, 2010, 9:09 AM UTC

skywalker wrote: post #14

"We've heard from lots of developers over the past two years who are excited to build on top of Kindle" So, why didn't they do nothing for two years? One week before Apple supposedly will announce the iTablet, Amazon creates a press release saying a limited beta of the Kindle SDK will start next month ! If you are the market leader, why would you wait two years for yours competitors? Doesn't make sense to me.

Post by utnick » Thu, Jan 21, 2010, 9:12 AM UTC

mcobrien wrote: post #26

gcv wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of apps don't need rapid refresh, or particularly fancy graphics. Weather apps, stock tickers, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, choose-your-own-adventure type games (even something like the old Adventure), a note taker, shopping list, fitness tracker... Combine these with the Kindle's wireless cellular link, add a little imagination, and I feel it has potential.

Considering developers will pay for app downloads themselves, it seems likely that only wifi access will be available. That's going to limit a lot of the kinds of apps that are popular on the iPhone. Why even install a wifi-only weather app when you can use the (experimental) web browser that always works?