Gadgets

I’ve been moaning for months about the state of the Android tablet market. I had planned to ask for one for Christmas, and then my birthday, but those dates have now slipped by, and there’s still not a suitable Android-based tablet for my wish list. I regularly borrow my husband’s iPad for playing games, but a significant problem has emerged that the occasional iPad appropriation doesn’t solve. I’m running out of books.

Since various family members have made the shift to e-readers, my sources for leisure-time reading material have seriously dried up. I’m too lazy and time-constrained to hunt for books I might like, so I rely on others to recommend and then lend me any good ones. Now that they all read their books digitally, it’s put a serious kink in this time-honored system. So much so that my husband finally went out and bought me a Kindle for my birthday. And you know what? It’s perfect.

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While many have fixated on the iPad 2, I’ve begun wondering what a Kindle 4 might look like. First off, I believe Amazon will continue to drive the price down on an entry level e-reader to increase uptake. Whether that’s existing $139 WiFi Kindle hardware, or a refreshed product remains to be seen. But I anticipate Amazon will hit the magical $99 price point in time for Christmas 2011. But what might a higher end Kindle look like?

Amazon could go the Barnes & Noble route by introducing a color LCD media-centric tablet. And that would actually make a whole lot of sense given the other digital media properties Amazon could leverage – MP3s, video on demand, and now free, instant streaming for Prime subscribers (!). Yet given the continued bashing of reflective screens in sunlight (screengrab from their latest television commercial below) and what looks to be a successful business relationship with e-Ink, 2011 may not be the year.

However, that’s not to say the Kindle platform will remain stagnant if Amazon sticks with e-Ink.

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