01/21/2010
Wall Street Journal – San Francisco Bureau
Amazon.com Inc. is showing signs of app envy.
The e-commerce giant says it plans to open its Kindle e-reader to “active content”–application programs that would allow the device to take on a wider range of uses.
Amazon’s move appears to borrow a page from Apple Inc. and its popular app store for the iPhone. It comes just days before Apple is expected to unveil a tablet computer that is likely to compete directly with the Kindle as a platform for the distribution of electronic books while offering a range of other uses, including music, video and games.
The Seattle-based company said it will invite software developers to build and upload programs that would be sold in the Kindle store later in the year. To aid in that process, Amazon plans to offer programmers access to technology and tools to help them build active content.
There will be some differences from smartphone app stores that have proliferated over the last two years. For one, the Kindle’s screen is black and white–based on a technology from E Ink that refreshes too slowly to offer video or motion graphics.
And unlike cellphone users, Kindle owners do not pay for the wireless connections on their gadgets; fees for their use of cellular networks is included in the purchase price of the device and digital content.
Kindle active content that uses only a nominal amount of wireless data–less than 100 kilobytes per month–will be sold as a one-time purchase. Other programs will be sold as a monthly subscription. And very small apps–less than 1 megabyte in size–may be offered for free.
Revenue from users of the apps would be split, with 70% of the money going to the developer and 30% to Amazon, net of delivery fees of $0.15 per megabyte. That’s similar to the revenue split Apple takes with app developers for the iPhone.
Amazon executives had previously been insistent that it sees the Kindle as a purpose-built device for reading. The company also avoided using the word “app” in its announcement. Beyond games and live-updated information, the move could open the Kindle to new kinds of book content, such as interactive academic textbooks.
“Kindle is capable of offering readers a broad range of content that goes beyond what the book is today,” said Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon.
As an example, Amazon said that Handmark Inc. is building a Kindle Zagat guide, which would feature live ratings and reviews. It also said that Electronic Arts Inc. would be developing games for the Kindle.
Yet it remains unclear whether app developers will leap into writing code for the Kindle, with competing app stores proliferating on smart phones from Apple, Palm Inc, Google Inc. and others.
Mr. Herdener said he expected that publishers of newspapers, magazines and textbooks would create active content for the Kindle. “Kindle really does offer a unique experience and has a vast audience of voracious readers,” he said.
Amazon has repeatedly declined to say how many Kindles it has sold.
