The Kindle, the iPad, and the Discussion of Devices vs. Services

Amazon just released an application that gives Kindle users the ability read their content on the Mac. This adds the Mac to a long list of otehr devices taht can be used to access Amazon’s Kindle services.

More importantly, it is another step in what they company has slowly been doing over the last year — turning the Kindle from a device into a service. It’s gone from a device-only service to something that doesn’t Kindle to use it. The Mac, Windows and mobile applications can be used directly with each other, without any Kindle hardware in the middle.

Apple is where Amazon was a year ago with their eBook strategy. The iBookstore is merely a feature of the iPad, and the iPad alone. Even there, it’s not the primary function of the device, as it’s not even installed by default. And as it stands right now, there’s no other way to use this service — no iPhone, Mac or web browser can get to the store or view downloaded content.

I see this panning out in one of two ways: a free-standing iBooks app for the Mac (and eventually other platforms) that syncs with the iPad in a very similar way Amazon uses Whispersync, or an “iBooks” enviroment that would function within iTunes. I hope it’s the former — iTunes already is a great poster child for software bloat.

Either way, while Amazon’s device isn’t as sexy as the iPad, their service is far superior to what Apple is offering. Apple’s iBook service will do well with iPad owners, but if Apple really wants to go after the Kindle, they have quite a bit of ground to cover.