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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Is Amazon's Kindle Taking Off

The more I see people carrying Amazon's Kindle on the train, the more I think that this could be looked back to be to books and reading what the Apple iPod was to music. The announcement that Tribune is delivering a new political magazine exclusively for this platform indicates that others see revenue opportunities from a subscription service. And Tribune is said to be creating more virtual magazines across topics like finance, travel, food, etc.

Would people buy Fortune Magazine for Kindle even if similar content is available for free on the web. Does Kindle morph into a web based reader. Will people be willing to stop buying books for electronic copies. And should Kindle come with an audio book component to add even more value. Amazon recently purchased Audible, so anything is possible. Newspaper and Magazines seem to have the bigger challenge in an online world to get virtual subscriptions when content is available free. How online content differs from subscription will determine viability for these products.