Kindle Not Competing with iPad

I was very happy to read yesterday that Amazon's Kindle is not being positioned to compete directly with Apple's iPad.  Rather than beef up the features it would need to position itself along side the iPad as a multi-use tool, the newest versions of the Kindle will increase it's advantage where the iPad is weakest: it will be much cheaper (starting at $139), lighter (8.5 oz), and thinner (1/3 of an inch), making it the most accessible and convenient e-reader on the market.  For more details check out this link.

I think this is a smart strategy.  We've seen countless brands try to compete with the iPhone to become the smartphone leader, and most of them fail because they try to compete with Apple at what it does best: develop innovative, high-quality products that can do many things pretty well.  By sticking to their original game-plan Amazon is ensuring that the Kindle continues to be the best e-reader on the market.

If the next few generations of Kindle continue to become cheaper and lighter I bet most iPad users will own Kindles too!