The hype and opprobrium on Amazon’s Kindle is out. The verdict is in: usability AND content are king. Depending on who you read, the Kindle succeeds or fails on one or both counts.
As I type this out on my iPhone, I have to say: the Kindle must win on both usability and content to soar. But, Amazon’s strength is so heavily weighted to content, that is the place they should focus.
Enter Pronetos. Pronetos looks to be the iTunes of the academic coursepack. And if the iPod and Facebook/MySpace have proved anything, they have proved that kids alone can make a platform succeed if it has the content and/or connectivity they crave. They will even buy a second device if necessary.
Amazon: get academic publications on the Kindle now. Add the smart pen (ie, social networking) and the sky’s the limit.
I’ll integrate it all with my iPhone later ;)
Nate, thanks for thinking of Pronetos while reviewing the Kindle. The Pronetos clan has been debating the relative merits of the Kindle as it sits, but we hadn’t really got around to thinking of it as a delivery mechanism for Pronetos. We will have to spend some time thinking about this. Thanks again for keeping us in mind, when you are ready to take the helm over here give us a call.
Nate: you are right, hopefully! Scholars can post any kind of content they want to Pronetos, and what we’ll roll out very soon is the ability for scholars to bundle articles from the site, podcasts, lecture notes, PowerPoint or Keynote slides – whatever – into coursepacks. If the Kindle platform does take off, we’ll be at the head of the line too, to make sure our content is ready to go for Kindle’s user base. Obviously there are great advantages for students, and faculty, inherent in the Kindle, so we are preparing for its success . . . Chris Blanchard CEO Pronetos, Inc.