What The Wireless Industry Can Learn From The Kindle’s ‘Whispernet’
The reason why the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle gets the wireless industry excited is because of one thing — unlike most devices, the Kindle does not require a monthly or yearly wireless bill. Amazon calls it the Whispernet, but it is really just Sprint’s high-speed wireless network working in the background that allows a user to search and download content on the go. Users likely don’t even know how it works because the business arrangement is quietly handled between Amazon and Sprint (NYSE: S) and from what they can tell, the content magically appears.
The early successes of the Kindle gives the wireless industry hope that it is feasible for a new series of devices to have connectivity going forward and that the cost of the network usage will be included in the cost of the item. Ultimately, this is real vision behind 4G, like WiMax and LTE. But in the case of Amazon, it demonstrates that the company isn’t limited to only distributing books to the Kindle.
Downplayed in today’s announcement of the Kindle 2, was the news of Amazon’s new “Whispersync” technology, which promises to automatically sync the Kindle 2 to the original Kindle, and with “a range of mobile devices in the future.” On the first read, this sounds like Bluetooth, where data can travel wirelessly between two devices, but likely it’s just the Sprint network sending information down to both devices. It can even be intelligent enough to recall what page the reader left off on across multiple devices.
Last week, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) said it was bringing 1.5 million public domain books to mobile phones, like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. Along with that a story in the New York Times, reported that Amazon was working on making titles available on a variety of mobile phones. Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon: “We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones…We are working on that now.”
Check out our coverage from earlier today on our sister site paidContent.org, which wrote about Stephen King’s e-book for the Kindle, and the news of the Kindle 2.
The Kindle is great for convenience (although I still think a lot of the downloadable media is overpriced), but I'm surprised more people aren't talking about <a href="http://urbzen.com/2009/02/09/amazon-kindle-privacy-fail/">the potential security/free speech implications</a> of the digitization of books.
Absurd paranoia, Stephanie! It is likely that books will be printed for eons except for Stephen King's Kindle only book or books that might otherwise not get published in "conventional" format. And as one commenter said on the link you posted, to the effect of you can back up your Kindle books on your computer and any attempt to censor would unleash a tsunami of electronic distribution of the original work. I gather that you fear this more than you fear a terrorist attack on your city with a suitcase nuclear device.
Relax, read a book on paper or Kindle, listen to an audio book, chill out.
But it has mucked up my Mini laptop settings
So called 3 G is a con. It is indeed just Wi fi and hot spots, which is useful.
The concept is a very good one indeed.
Whisper? Shhhhshshhh! It’s just wi fi wherever you can find it…. anybody’s