It's not surprising to see the newspapers and traditional media going gaga over the new, larger, Amazon Kindle, because they are seeing it as the saviour of their business model (which is, recall, to (a) create a cartel for content, and (b) force people to pay for it). The problem for these pundits is that there is no basic problem with the existing model, where content is distributed in an open and accessible format over the web, and people read it using their device of choice. of course, with that model, there is (a) no cartel, and (b) no payment. What Amazon - and the rest of them - have to do is to convince people to return voluntarily to the closed environment, and to pay for the privilege of doing so. They have a lot of marketing punch, still, so there is the chance they could do so, especially as they enlist the aid of those who would benefit from the closed content cartel. But if Amazon can build the Kindle, any kid in a garage can build its more open competitor. It's not rocket science; it's all smoke and mirrors. More from Technology Review, The Chronicle, CJR, TidBITS, Gizmodo, Boggs, MediaShift, Mashable, Wired News, BBC News, New Learning Playbook.
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