By Jason Perlow| zdnet
The Barnes and Noble “nook”, which was launched earlier this month, is the real-life version of the “Kindroid” I envisioned one year ago. So now that it has been built for real, what do we do with it?
A year ago, I posited that Amazon might do better with the kindle platform if they abandoned their proprietary, locked down software platform on the device and embraced an Open Source platform, Google’s Android.
It never occurred to me that the Kindroid might actually become reality in the near future, and that the theoretical device would be introduced by Barnes & Noble, Amazon’s prime competition in the brick and mortar space. Still, I am impressed and somewhat vindicated that the Kindroid or a similar device that resembled my proposed configuration came into existence as the nook.
So now that we have a real life Kindroid — what do we do with it?
My actual Kindroid is more than just the sum of its parts. To truly make use of the technology, we need to consider what the benefit there is to having Android on an e-reader if the developers can’t get get access to it.
I suspect that Android was chosen because B&N doesn’t want to be in the business of developing its own software platform for its reader, which is one of the prime reasons I suggested that Amazon go the same route a year ago. However Android also has the benefit of having its own software development community, and would allow a great deal of extensibility to be added to the device if a nook Developer Kit with a “nook App Store” was opened up that allowed modified Android applications to run on the device… (read more)
kindle Wireless Reading Device (6″ Display, U.S. & International Wireless, Latest Generation)
kindle dx Wireless Reading Device (9.7″ Display, U.S. Wireless, Latest Generation)
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