Is Kindle The Next RIM?
openmymind.net
openmymind.net
Second, Kindle is a product, and RIM is a company. You're comparing two different things not comparable.
Third, I think Amazon's rationale in not innovating the hardware that much is that it's not really worth it to move too fast. They own the mindshare for online bookstore so they don't really need to iterate very fast. All they need to do is make apps for different devices, and look at the trend. Probably they will come up with an entirely different type of reading device based on what they learned by building apps on different platforms. The bottom line is, they don't look like they're innovating on the hardware side because they are not, and I think that's a wise thing, when everyone's still trying to figure out where this is going.
I think Amazon's approach is interesting if you consider that they appear to be trying to commoditize the Kindle as fast as the technology allows. It's not just simple market competition, they seem to lead in price and tablets are just a different kind of beast. I think it's the realization that book purchases are far more lucrative.
Besides you can make a nice device and get $20 in profit on it and fewer customers buying e-books with it, or you can make a cheap device and get $15 in profit on it but three times the number of customers buying it.
The rumor of the Kindle eventually becoming a free item makes all kinds of sense to me. Imagine a promo, "Buy 5 books get a free Kindle". I'd have Kindles lying all over my house.