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I just posted a snarky screenshot of a Google search for “Kindle 3” that includes an Amazon ad for savings on the Kindle 3 and free shipping on orders over $25. My intent was to poke fun at how web ads often try to sell non-existant products.

Then, I realized that some people are calling the Kindle DX the Kindle 3 (or were back when the DX was in the rumor stage). So, I deleted the post thinking I was wrong. The thing is, Amazon has never called the Kindle DX the Kindle 3 and the ad I was poking fun at doesn’t link directly to the DX. The ad just goes to a list of Kindle products and accessories.

I think Amazon needs to get its ducks in a row with the naming of Kindle-related things to avoid user confusion. We currently have:

• Kindle (1st Generation)
• Kindle 2
• Kindle DX
• Kindle for iPhone
• Kindle Store
• Kindle Books
• Kindle Newspapers
• Kindle Magazines
• Kindle Blogs

There’s enough Kindling to start an e-fire here. And, a Kindle for BlackBerry app continues to be rumored. Amazon can’t seem to decide if “Kindle” is a device, e-reading software, an e-content file format, or all of the above. I’m not the first to think this is odd.

I will be fascinated to see if the next Kindle device will be the Kindle 3, the Kindle 4, or some different name. And, will the next Kindle DX be the Kindle DX 2, Kindle DY, the Kindle EX, or something else?

Amazon could take a page from the Apple playbook here. The iPod and iPhone are devices, iTunes is software (even if now oddly named), and the iTunes Store (even if now also oddly named) is where you buy content. That’s much easier to get your head around and talk about than Kindle, Kindle, Kindle.

The news that Amazon’s international Kindle will use AT&T even in the U.S. got me thinking about the Kindle’s future with Sprint. And, I’m guessing there probably isn’t a very long one.

Americans who can drop $259 for a Kindle that only works in the U.S. on Sprint can certainly drop an extra $20 for a Kindle that works internationally on AT&T and its partners. In fact, people who can spend $259 on an e-book reader are likely the kind of people who travel internationally.

Yes, AT&T has taken a beating for its 3G coverage and its performance on the iPhone. But, many consumers are unaware of those issues and will be equally unaware of what phone networks the two Kindle models use. Many just may not care about what phone carrier their Kindle uses or figure that even AT&T can handle downloading blocks of e-text. Most will see $20 as a small price to pay for free $1.99-per-book international roaming flexibility and they will pay it. And, Amazon won’t want to manufacture and stock two devices if it can get away with only one.

My guess is the $259 Kindle that works in the U.S. over Sprint is only being offered to clear out existing inventory, fulfill a contract that Amazon has with Sprint, or both. As soon as inventory runs out and/or the contract is fulfilled, I think new Kindles will go AT&T and international only. (I’m not the only one having these thoughts.) Sprint cannot be a happy camper this week.

I just hope legacy support for Sprint-based Kindles will be solid, as me, my wife, and my mother all have them. Time will tell.

With the Barnes & Noble Nook eBook Reader the Amazon Kindle finally has a worthy challenger. If you haven’t seen it, there’s some b-roll footage that shows more detail about the Nook than the general marketing materials do. The device looks extremely well done. With the possible exception of Jeff Bezos, no one loves the Kindle 2 more than I do and yet I’m extremely interested in the Nook. These are my initial thoughts.

The Meh

I don’t see how Wi-Fi will be very useful in a device that already has an always-on 3G wireless connection and primarily downloads fairly small chunks of text. (Yeah, yeah, I know AT&T sucks. But, even its network can handle downloading eBooks. Besides newer Kindles are on AT&T too.) If the Nook does web browsing or Wikipedia viewing like the Kindle does, B&N hasn’t mentioned it. So, Wi-Fi in the Nook is nice but hardly a game-changer at this stage.

I’m not sure if this eBook lending thing will take off on the Nook or not. A part of me feels like Barnes and Noble is saying “Welcome to the Social.” But, perhaps eLending will be a way to encourage friends to get Nooks. It could also spark more book purchases since many of us take more than 14 days to finish a book. Time will tell.

Who needs expandable storage in a device that can hold 1,500 books at a time and supports free downloading of previously-purchased books? This is a total non-issue for 95 percent of consumers. My guess is that Amazon dropped expandable storage after the first Kindle because so few people were using it. I’m unclear why B&N feels the need for this and it probably makes the device thicker than needed.

Apple has proven that replaceable batteries in portable devices don’t matter for most consumers. iPods, iPhones, and even the new entry-level MacBook don’t have user-replaceable batteries, The Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX also don’t. (Amazon dropped replaceable batteries after the first Kindle.) Again, I’m unclear why B&N feels the need for this and again it probably makes the device thicker than needed. Perhaps the color touch screen and Wi-Fi are factors?

The Wow

The CoverFlow-esque color touch screen interface on the Nook is very slick. It’s certainly a differentiator in a device that sells for the same cost as a Kindle 2. With the Nook, the eBook reader interface bar has been raised. Though, to be fair, Amazon had set that bar about an inch off the ground. I’ll be fascinated to see how Amazon responds here. The Kindle 2 will be almost 10 months old by the time the Nook ships. I don’t think Jeff Bezos has spent all that time ordering shoes from Zappos. I would expect a Kindle 3 in Q1 of 2010 and I hope it has significant interface enhancements.

Amazon is currently listing a little over 365,000 eBooks in its catalog. B&N says it has more than 1 million eBooks, though 500,000 of those are low-demand free books that are out of copyright. That still means that B&N is claiming a lead of around 135,000 copyrighted titles. If that’s accurate, it’s very impressive. I’m not sure how B&N leapfrogged Amazon here, but kudos.

Personalized screen savers, direct loading/viewing of PDFs, and support for the EPUB and eReader formats are all great features to have that the Kindle 2 lacks. (No Word support on the Nook though, and it’s unclear if documents can be emailed to the Nook.)

In my mind, the killer feature of the Nook has nothing to do with the device at all. It has to do with location, location, location. You’ll be able to try a Nook in a local B&N store, buy one in a store, get support for one in a store, and return one in a store. That’s huge when people are trying to decide whether to spend $259 for something. I keep saying that Amazon needs to get the Kindle into Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target. Maybe the Nook will make that happen.

Overall

Overall the Nook looks like a great device and it will ship in time for the holidays. B&N is a little late to eBook reader the party, but it has arrived very well dressed. Competition for the Kindle is good for all of us eConsumers and I can’t wait to try the Nook soon.

Lots of people are questioning whether the burgeoning eBook reader market is viable. They wonder whether the iPhone, Android phones, the rumored Apple tablet, and other multi-function “Swiss Army” devices will make dedicated eBook readers irrelevant. The answer is: yes, but not for awhile.

A Kindle 2 from Amazon or a Barnes & Noble Nook can be had for $259 and prices are falling pretty fast. They come with free cellular networking. They can get 10-14 days worth of non-network use on a single charge. They aren’t backlit or reflective, making them easy on the eyes. Their screens are larger than phone screens and thus easier to read on. That’s a pretty impressive feature list for someone who’s an avid reader.

To quote the mantra, the best camera is the one you have with you. Well, the best eBook reader is the one you have with you too. (I enjoy Kindle for iPhone on the go as much as anyone.) But, many people can easily have dedicated eBook readers with them at home, school, work, vacation, etc. And, the reasons listed above make a dedicated device better for some people at this point in time than an iPhone or the rumored tablet.

Those devices already have color screens for future eComics and glossy eMagazines going for them (along with their multi-functionality). Over time, they will likely improve regarding cost, battery life, and reading comfort. But, that may take years and dedicated eBook readers will be useful to many consumers until then.

In the meantime, eBook reader manufacturers won’t be standing still. Their dedicated devices will get cheaper and may gain 256 shades of gray or even some level of color. That could extend the usefulness of eBook readers further. Time will tell.

In an age where everyone seems to complain about poor customer service, I’ve had two really great experiences in the past two weeks.

First, my white iPhone 3GS developed a small crack around the silence switch. It was odd because I kept the phone in a case, never dropped it, didn’t see any other signs of wear on it, and rarely used the silence switch.

I went to my local Apple Store expecting to be told the crack wasn’t covered under warranty (and perhaps for it to be implied that I had dropped the iPhone). To my surprise, an Apple Genius handed me a replacement within a few minutes of looking at the phone. (Interesting side note, the Genius shined some sort of UV light down the iPhone’s audio-out port. Apparently Apple can tell if an iPhone has been submerged in water that way. Not that mine had.)

Next, my Kindle 2 has been resetting on me daily lately. Restoring to factory settings hasn’t helped. It’s a strange problem that I haven’t seen many others report and I can’t reproduce the problem at will. So, when I called up Amazon I expected a refusal to replace the Kindle or some sort of run-around. Again to my surprise, Amazon quickly offered to replace the Kindle free of charge under warranty. It’s coming next-day air and Amazon is paying shipping both ways.

I feel like both of these are examples of big companies with big brands that really get the concept of brand promise. Brand promise isn’t just marketing and it isn’t just product. It’s also how you treat customers at every stage of interaction. I already adored these two companies and their products. (I even own a little stock in both.) But, I’ve now been so pleased with how they’ve treated me from a support standpoint that I’m blogging about it. I wish every company treated all of its customers this well all the time.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Amazon is releasing a Kindle Development Kit in limited beta next month that will allow “active content” third-party applications to run on the Kindle. I think this is another smart move by Amazon in that it has little to lose and everything to gain here. But, I question how big a splash Kindle apps can make.

The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are awesome textual eReaders. But, they have slow processors, slow screen refresh rates, and can only display 16 shades of gray. I believe the Kindle DX has one gyroscope to govern screen orientation, but I don’t think the Kindle 2 has a gyroscope at all.

When you look at other mobile devices that have app store models, you see color screens, touch screens, faster processors, much faster screen refresh rates, cameras, and even bells and whistles like wifi, multiple gyroscopes, GPS, compass, radio, or pedometer. Not having those things will limit the pool of developers who are interested in the Kindle and limit what they can create if they are interested.

Consumers of Kindle apps will also be asked to embrace a somewhat new pricing scheme for mobile apps. Rightly or wrongly, most consumers are used to getting mobile apps for free or for a one-time fee in the 99 cent to $4.99 range. Kindle apps under 1MB in size and under 100KB per month per user in data usage can be offered for free. But, Kindle apps that go over those thresholds will have a 15 cents per MB delivery fee baked into their prices. Some could even come with monthly subscription fees. And, advertising will not be allowed on Kindle apps to help keep costs down.

Many consumers may balk if Kindle app prices are the same or higher than what they would pay for a color, touchscreen, bell and whistle app on another device. And, they may really balk at the idea of a monthly subscription fee under those circumstances.

I think we will see a decent number of free apps with fairly basic functionality (Amazon has a Sudoku app screenshot on the KDK page) and perhaps a few amazing apps that are focused on text and thus less hampered by the Kindle’s limitations. (I look forward to Marco’s thoughts about the future of Instapaper on the Kindle with great interest. The integration is already amazing now.)

All of that said, the KDK hasn’t shipped yet and it’s always possible that a Kindle 3 with new features could be announced in February. I dearly love the Kindle, so nothing would make me happier than to see a robust application store emerge.

Obituaries are already being written for the Amazon Kindle with today’s Apple announcement of iPad and iBooks. (At least Steve Jobs gave Amazon and the Kindle some props today.) Despite the iPad’s large color touch screen, I think the reports of the Kindle’s death are premature. The Kindle will still offer major cost savings and some significant advantages for serious readers of text:

• Price: A Kindle at $259 is a great deal cheaper than an iPad at $499-$829. Granted, the iPad does much, much more than the Kindle, but far more people can spend $259 on something than can spend $499+ on something.
• 3G Cost: The Kindle at $259 comes with free 3G connectivity and that 3G works internationally. An iPad with 3G costs $629-$829, you have to spend $14.99-$29.99 a month for 3G connectivity, and international support/pricing is unannounced.
• Screen: As my geeky friend Chris Fox just pointed out to me, the Kindle’s screen has more pixels per inch (167 ppi) than the iPad (132 ppi). The Kindle’s lack of backlighting, lower screen reflectivity, and higher ppi will likely make for a better long-form textual reading experience than the iPad.
• Battery Life: Apple is claiming 10 hours of battery life for the iPad using wifi. Amazon claims a Kindle can go up to a week with 3G on. The Kindle’s battery advantage grows even greater when wireless is turned off. Not having to take a charger on trips is awesome.
• Size: The Kindle is smaller, thinner, and lighter weight than the iPad.
• Selection: At this point, Amazon probably offers more eBook titles than Apple. (That could change.) Amazon may also be able to use its market power in the book/eBook space to undercut Apple on eBook prices. (Time will tell.)
• Flexibility: Kindle eBooks can also be read on the iPhone, on the BlackBerry, on a Windows PC, and soon on the Mac and the iPad (via the existing iPhone app). It is unclear if Apple iBooks can be read outside of the iPad. Also, an iPad requires a computer for many things while a Kindle doesn’t except for audiobook downloads.
• Text-to-Speech: The Kindle offers text-to-speech reading of books. It does not appear the iPad does.

Finally, I can’t wait to see what Amazon’s next moves are. Is a Kindle 3 announcement coming soon? Will we see Kindle for iPad in addition to Kindle for iPhone? Don’t count Amazon and the Kindle out yet.

Amazon is showing the Kindle 2 as backordered but is still taking new orders at the $189 price point. The Kindle 2 is far from new and we aren’t anywhere near the holiday season. So, it’s odd that the Kindle 2 would be backordered now.

I’m guessing the Kindle 2 will shortly get a smaller version of the improved screen recently added to the Kindle DX. The screen has 50 percent better contrast and looks quite nice from the photos I’ve seen.

I wonder if the Kindle 2 will also get the Kindle DX’s graphite coloring. Not sure yet how I feel about that. I may have to buy one and find out!