Amazon Should Keep On With The Kindle Hardware

Doing hardware right is difficult.  You need to be cheap and continuously cutting costs, but you also need to be high quality.  And these days, consumer electronics hardware needs to be beautifully integrated with software and services.  Amazon does these things remarkably well.

Indeed, the most powerful feeling I had when opening up and using a Kindle for the first time was what a fantastically Apple-like experience the whole thing was.  High quality. Attention to detail.  Excellent services.  Nice packaging.  Amazon.com does hardware right.

And they should keep doing it.  While Kindle is now more a utility than a piece of hardware (it's everywhere, on your iphone, iPad, Android device), there may long be a market for dedicated eReaders.  They are easier to use than tablets and the eInk screens feature excellent contrast.  As eInk prices keep dropping, it may also be possible to offer eReaders with very very low prices.

If anyone can continue to make this experience worthwhile, it's Amazon.  I'm not sure Amazon could succeed in bringing us an Android tablet focused on eReading, but I am confident that continued offerings in the dedicated eReader space could be a huge success for them.

Still The Best eReader.  Photo by Windell Oskay