Amazon KDK Beta Program is Open for Applications
08-Feb-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
Amazon has opened
their KDK Beta program. Amazon also published a
KDK FAQ. As suspected, it’s Java ME based
with a custom API for the Kindle:
Development will be possible in an Java environment, but it appears that Eclipse will be supported more directly.[It will] provide UI components, JSON and XML parsers, HTTP and HTTPS networking, secure storage, and other features. Other APIs like audio and dictionary access will be available in a future release of the KDK.
What the iPad needs to be your only computer
02-Feb-2010 Filed in: iPad
There’s been a lot of
talk about how the iPad will be used by people that
aren’t experts in computers. This article makes a good
case that Grandmas and Technophobes will love the
iPad:
I started to use Macs again after ten years when I got a digital camera. I read the instructions for the Windows software it came with and then just plugged it into a Mac I inherited -- it just worked. Since then, I’ve used a Mac for everything except my job (.NET SDK development).
Which brings me to my first problem with the iPad -- how do I connect my digital camera? Steve Jobs talked about how great the iPad would be for photos, but how do they get on the iPad to begin with? Undoubtedly, this will be solved, but it’s a problem that will make the iPad useless for a lot of people if this is their only computer.
Secondly, I don’t take a lot of pictures and almost no video and I have about 10-15 GB of photos (and 20-25 GB of music). 64 GB is just completely inadequate if this is going to be the only place to store them. For the iPhone, synching gives me downsampled photos and music if I want to save space, but I can’t do that to my primary copy. I’m sure iPads will get to bigger sizes, but I’m also sure that we’ll need more too.
Even if the iPad had a terabyte, I really need some off device storage -- iPads can be lost, which would be bad, but not as bad as losing all of my data. It’s unclear how the iPad can be backed up if it’s your only computer.
I know that these problems will be solved eventually, but right now -- it’s not really possible for the iPad to work without a host computer -- if it’s like the iPhone, it depends on synching too much.
I’m not sure what the solution will be, but I have a Time Capsule -- if the iPad had Time Machine, and if the Time Capsule could suck the images off my digital camera (perhaps using the iPad as the UI), then I’d be most of the way there.
And this article explains the difference in computing habits between the Gen Xers that came of age during the PC revolution and the generation before and after us.The darndest thing happened in the last five days and I was fortunate to be privy to it. Apple has gotten people excited about computing. But this time, it’s not nerds or geeks and certainly not IT industry analysts. It’s everyone else. I had a curious set of three conversations this week. One with a grandma, one with a technophobe and the third with a self-proclaimed luddite.
Both of these articles make a great case, and although, I need a regular computer to do development, I would like everything else to migrate to an iPad.The reason I’m starting to think the Old World is ultimately doomed is because we are bracketed on both sides by the New World, and those people being born today, post-iPhone and post-iPad, will never know (and probably not care) about how things used to work. Just as nobody today cares about floppies, and nobody has to care about manual transmissions if they don’t want to.
I started to use Macs again after ten years when I got a digital camera. I read the instructions for the Windows software it came with and then just plugged it into a Mac I inherited -- it just worked. Since then, I’ve used a Mac for everything except my job (.NET SDK development).
Which brings me to my first problem with the iPad -- how do I connect my digital camera? Steve Jobs talked about how great the iPad would be for photos, but how do they get on the iPad to begin with? Undoubtedly, this will be solved, but it’s a problem that will make the iPad useless for a lot of people if this is their only computer.
Secondly, I don’t take a lot of pictures and almost no video and I have about 10-15 GB of photos (and 20-25 GB of music). 64 GB is just completely inadequate if this is going to be the only place to store them. For the iPhone, synching gives me downsampled photos and music if I want to save space, but I can’t do that to my primary copy. I’m sure iPads will get to bigger sizes, but I’m also sure that we’ll need more too.
Even if the iPad had a terabyte, I really need some off device storage -- iPads can be lost, which would be bad, but not as bad as losing all of my data. It’s unclear how the iPad can be backed up if it’s your only computer.
I know that these problems will be solved eventually, but right now -- it’s not really possible for the iPad to work without a host computer -- if it’s like the iPhone, it depends on synching too much.
I’m not sure what the solution will be, but I have a Time Capsule -- if the iPad had Time Machine, and if the Time Capsule could suck the images off my digital camera (perhaps using the iPad as the UI), then I’d be most of the way there.
How the iPad will affect the Kindle
30-Jan-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
| iPad
Amazon has no hope of
competing with Apple to be the best general computing
tablet platform, so trying to match the iPad feature
for feature will drive up their cost and still leave
them with an inferior product. The two other stable
competitive positions are either to go cheap or to go
niche.
Once the KDK is available, we’ll see the top end come down to about $400. Amazon can do this because they’re set to make money from their free 3G, in the form of subscription applications. I’m sure a significant component of the $489 price is to offset the expected 3G use that isn’t offset by book sales.
This strategy is more in line with Amazon’s online retail strategy. They currently compete on price and let third-party stores focus on niche markets. Even though Porter cautions against trying to have two strategies, it can be overcome if different business units focus on each strategy independently -- what could be more independent than a third-party.
This will be hard for Amazon because, before the iPad, they were clearly the differentiated premium market-leader, but now that market has been subsumed. The only hope for Kindle is to become the cost-leader and to let third-party developers turn the Kindle into cheap niche devices.In his 1980 classic Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors, Porter simplifies the scheme by reducing it down to the three best strategies. They are cost leadership, differentiation, and market segmentation (or focus). Market segmentation is narrow in scope while both cost leadership and differentiation are relatively broad in market scope.
Once the KDK is available, we’ll see the top end come down to about $400. Amazon can do this because they’re set to make money from their free 3G, in the form of subscription applications. I’m sure a significant component of the $489 price is to offset the expected 3G use that isn’t offset by book sales.
This strategy is more in line with Amazon’s online retail strategy. They currently compete on price and let third-party stores focus on niche markets. Even though Porter cautions against trying to have two strategies, it can be overcome if different business units focus on each strategy independently -- what could be more independent than a third-party.
Hoping the Amazon KDK is Java based
26-Jan-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
The speculation on the
KDK is that it’s going to be Java based, and I hope
that’s right. We know for sure that it runs Linux, and
that there’s a JVM and obfuscated jars on the device.
According to what I’ve read, there’s no perl or python
or anything like that on it, so the only options will
be C/C++ or Java. For the sake of the ecosystem, Amazon
will need to pick Java and probably will run
third-party code in a some kind of sandboxed
environment.
To me the best thing about it being Java based is that I will finally have a JVM that I care about targeting. One of my big problems with Java is that there’s no place the JVM runs where something else doesn’t run better or that I just like more. For web apps, I prefer python based frameworks, and for Windows apps, you have to use .NET or Win32 with C/C++. On a Mac, Objective C is the obvious choice. Java is a good choice on a lot of mobile devices, but I haven’t cared about them, until now.
And the main reason I want a JVM to target is because it gives me a practical reason to use clojure. I know it might not work out, and of course, I’ll be writing Java at first to learn the API, but I’m hoping I can transition to clojure eventually, or at least use a hybrid.
In 2008, Rich Hickey came to speak in Northampton, and I prepared by learning and blogging about clojure for the 20 days preceding it. Since then, I’ve been on a lookout for a JVM that I wanted to target. The closest I’ve come is the Google AppEngine, but I still liked python and Django style better. It may turn out that the KDK just works better with Java, but clojure has shown that it’s pretty good at driving OO frameworks like Swing, so I think it will work just fine.
To me the best thing about it being Java based is that I will finally have a JVM that I care about targeting. One of my big problems with Java is that there’s no place the JVM runs where something else doesn’t run better or that I just like more. For web apps, I prefer python based frameworks, and for Windows apps, you have to use .NET or Win32 with C/C++. On a Mac, Objective C is the obvious choice. Java is a good choice on a lot of mobile devices, but I haven’t cared about them, until now.
And the main reason I want a JVM to target is because it gives me a practical reason to use clojure. I know it might not work out, and of course, I’ll be writing Java at first to learn the API, but I’m hoping I can transition to clojure eventually, or at least use a hybrid.
In 2008, Rich Hickey came to speak in Northampton, and I prepared by learning and blogging about clojure for the 20 days preceding it. Since then, I’ve been on a lookout for a JVM that I wanted to target. The closest I’ve come is the Google AppEngine, but I still liked python and Django style better. It may turn out that the KDK just works better with Java, but clojure has shown that it’s pretty good at driving OO frameworks like Swing, so I think it will work just fine.
Why I think Amazon app store will be a be a better deal for developers
25-Jan-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
Amazon, clearly feeling
the heat from the Apple device coming out in two days,
is making some moves with Kindle. In the space of a few
weeks, they have altered the publisher/Amazon
split, announced an SDK, and are offering a money-back guarantee for
frequent book buyers [links via daringfireball.net].
Amazon has a real chance to win the hearts of developers because of few key differences between their offering and Apple’s.
Subscription apps + good enough for business will be a big win for developers. Business apps don’t go for $0.99 -- the equivalent might turn out to be $5/month for something simple, and businesses won’t blink. Better than the up-front price is that you get a predictable income stream that isn’t subject to the whim of the top 25 lists.
This isn’t to say that Kindle will beat Apple in any quantifiable way (number of apps, number of downloads, number of customers, etc), but I think that the kinds of stories of real businesses being built on the Kindle store will be quite different from the lottery that the iPhone app market appears to be.
Amazon has a real chance to win the hearts of developers because of few key differences between their offering and Apple’s.
- Because of the free 3G, Amazon needs to have a class of apps that are subscription based. This may seem like a downside, but if you can keep the monthly cost low, this gives an Amazon app something that has been missing from the Apple AppStore: Recurring Revenue
- Amazon is a clear leader and innovator in e-commerce -- specifically cross-selling. I think it’s very likely that Amazon will be able to surface apps all over their store. Make an app that helps people choose a digital camera, and it may be promoted on every camera page.
- The Kindle will be one-third to one-half the price of the Apple device, which makes it very attractive to do a large rollout to a mobile workforce. Insurance adjusters, delivery truck drivers, on-site construction, etc. need to read documents -- they don’t need an iPod, fart apps, or games.
- The Kindle will probably always be smaller, lighter, and use less power -- Apple could surprise me here, but the Kindle is so low-powered, it’s unlikely that they can’t keep up.
- Hardware keyboard -- Apple could clearly innovate here -- I’m guessing with an external bluetooth keyboard. If so, that adds bulk, weight and sucks battery.
- The e-ink display -- no color is a downside, but the e-ink can be read outside -- again, think outdoor, mobile workforce.
- Amazon’s Kindle DRM and book deleting are cause for concern, but if they have any sense, they will learn from Apple’s experience with AppStore rejections and loosen up. It doesn’t appear that they will from my first looks at the KDK.
Subscription apps + good enough for business will be a big win for developers. Business apps don’t go for $0.99 -- the equivalent might turn out to be $5/month for something simple, and businesses won’t blink. Better than the up-front price is that you get a predictable income stream that isn’t subject to the whim of the top 25 lists.
This isn’t to say that Kindle will beat Apple in any quantifiable way (number of apps, number of downloads, number of customers, etc), but I think that the kinds of stories of real businesses being built on the Kindle store will be quite different from the lottery that the iPhone app market appears to be.
Amazon Kindle SDK (KDK): First looks
24-Jan-2010 Filed in: Amazon KDK
Last week,
Amazon announced that they will be
releasing an SDK for creating Kindle
Apps. I
know that three days before the big Apple
Tablet/Slate/Canvas announcement, I’m supposed to be
getting ready to tabletize my app, but the idea of
developing for the Kindle
is looking kind of
interesting.
Given that the beta isn’t out yet -- there isn’t a lot of information about the KDK yet. However, there have been some successful hacks of the Kindle and Amazon was forced by the GPL to publish their modifications, so we do know some things:
is looking kind of
interesting.
Given that the beta isn’t out yet -- there isn’t a lot of information about the KDK yet. However, there have been some successful hacks of the Kindle and Amazon was forced by the GPL to publish their modifications, so we do know some things:
- The Kindle runs Linux
- Kindle GUI’s are written in Java
- There will be three models of apps, free, one-time purchase, and subscription. The first two will have a monthly bandwidth cap of 100KB/user.
- Advertising is listed as something you can’t do -- perhaps they mean an app that only advertises, but even so, why not? Mobile advertising is large part of the app ecosystem, so I assume in-app advertising will be allowed.
- A generic reader is not allowed -- again, does this mean a PDF reader wouldn’t be allowed? I can see Amazon not wanting the 3G being used to buy from other stores, but why not let me read content I get from other means (or from subscription apps).