I’ve wavering on the Kindle Fire. Obviously it’s not available in the UK officially yet but that won’t necessarily stop me from owning one.

I don’t have a standard Kindle. Instead I prefer using the array of apps, mostly on my iPhone or iPad, to access my Amazon library.

The Fire, though, that’s something I feel I need to consider buying to check it out.

What’s your view? Are you planning on buying one? Have you got one in your hand? How are you liking it?

I spend a lot with Amazon. The company is fast approaching business critical status for me — and for my wife. Indeed we’re getting to the point that when one of us thinks of something we need, we just order it — there-and-then.

We bought Amazon Prime a few years ago and never bothered looking back. So delivery is ‘free’, provided we’re buying from Amazon themselves (or via a seller with a fulfilment arrangement with Amazon).

Here’s an illustration as to how mundane and integrated Amazon is into our lifestyle: Over the weekend my wife commented that we needed more washing up liquid. I briefly interrupted what I was doing on the iPad to ask her, “What colour Fairy Liquid?”

“Don’t mind,” she replied.

I hit the one-click button. Neither of us thought about it again until the 4-pack of Fairy Liquid arrived — at which point we both smiled briefly and got on with our day. That’s how integrated the company is right now.

Rarely do we actually bother to go out and buy mundane stuff. Like envelopes. My wife has to send a dress to a friend and was wondering where the post office is on Ascot High Street. She was planning a visit. Why bother, I prompted, unless you need to actually *go* to the High Street. Just order some envelopes and get the package picked up tomorrow. You can guess who she turned to for the envelopes. Yup. Amazon.

For us, it literally is ‘Amazon and you’re done’.

We’re big users of the Kindle app on multiple devices — typically iPhones and iPads. We haven’t yet purchased any Kindle devices though. I haven’t felt I need to. I haven’t needed another device in my life — yet. Although I appreciate the Kindle reading experience, I’m actually quite content to use the iPhone myself.

But a Kindle Tablet? With all of Amazon’s services integrated? From the music store to movie streaming to apps? Yes. Step into my office. I’d use the company’s services even more. And almost every time I reach for Amazon, the company takes a revenue stream. It’s not the same with the iPad. Indeed, when I consider the possibilities that could result from a Kindle Tablet, they could potentially eclipse the value I derive from an iPad.

It’s conceivable that Amazon can deliver an integrated experience that — at least — rivals the one we’re familiar with from Apple. It’s further conceivable that they might take the existing platform model we’re familiar with and whack it out the park.

The most exciting element for me in this situation is Apple. I’d like to see Apple under severe stress. I think it’s fair to say that, for the most part, Apple has had a crazy-easy ride. The legal games they’re playing with Samsung are most definitely a distraction (and the 800lb Gorilla that is Samsung is most definitely playing in the big leagues). However the way in which Apple has been able to dictate terms to its partners has been rather disappointing. Witness, for example, the Financial Times withdrawing their native applications because of Apple’s rather direct policies — that’s simply ridiculous. Or forcing customers of Amazon’s Kindle app to have to buy via the browser rather than ‘in app’. Obviously designed to degrade the experience for customers of the Kindle app in favour of Apple’s own platform.

Apple are entitled to do what they wish of course. Such blatant self interest only highlighted their hugely powerful position.

There’s been no come-back other than some seriously frustrated partners and one or two sniffy articles in the media.

How would Apple react to marketshare being eaten up by Amazon? How would they react to a mighty challenge from a worthy competitor? I’d like to witness that — I think we could see great things emerge from all participants.

I can’t help but feel we’ve gone through a period of limited innovation thanks to the stranglehold Apple has had over the wider market — not just the tablet market.

A $250 or $300 price point for the Kindle Fire — as TechCrunch is reporting — would tickle me pink.

I’ve been trying not to think too much about Amazon’s entry into the tablet market. I really don’t want to be disappointed. I’m hoping they’ve really given a lot of consideration to the user experience. I’m hoping that the hardware is good enough, that it’s not been too rushed, or too limited.

I’m hoping that we’ll see a credible competitor to the iPad hit the market this afternoon.

Come on Jeff, come on Amazon, let’s see what you’ve got to show us.

Here’s the email I just received from DPD. I ordered a lot of stuff from Amazon on Friday and over the weekend so we’re due a few deliveries today. It was nice to get this update by email. It’s a super example of smart thinking. Amazon already has my email address. I am utterly content for Amazon to pass this information (one-time) to DPD to help me receive the package reliably.

I clicked through on ‘Change Date’ and sure enough, it’s ultra easy for me to change the date of delivery.

I just forwarded the mail to my wife. Turns out she’s going to be out in the afternoon.

Genius.

I just clicked ‘change date’ and selected tomorrow.

That is smart.

I’d like to get a delivery notification for every sizeable delivery from Amazon. Better still I’d like a push notification from the Amazon Shopping iPhone app — which is where I ordered the package I think.

It’s a clear, pleasant email from DPD though. Their site doesn’t appear to optimise for mobiles — that’s a wee bit of a disappointment — so on a smartphone it’ll just take a little while longer to load.

One thing that would be helpful is some kind of description as to what’s IN the package. Now I know that it’s probably best for these update emails to be reasonably anonymous (e.g. “We’re delivering your £10k diamond-plated Vertu this morning” isn’t something you probably want too public) but it would be useful to have some way of connecting the notification to the order.

If Amazon was emailing me instead of DPD, then I think it would be fine for them to mention the details.

Surely DPD are just the delivery mechanism, right? My transaction was with Amazon — therefore why didn’t I get a communication from Amazon, rather than DPD? Ideally the whole experience should be branded Amazon, no?

Anyway. The net result is satisfaction for me.

Update: Thanks to Bhupinder Hare of Geopost UK (DPD) marketing who got in touch in the comments below to point out that DPD will have a mobile website ready in early 2012. I’m looking forward to that Bhupinder, this is super news!

However, he got the iPhone to test. He obviously asked for a few recommendations.

I got my iPhone and proceeded to browse through the screens observing which ones I actually used. I thought this might be an interesting exercise for you to read. If time permits, it would be super if you could do the same in the comments as I’m sure I’ll discover some good apps that way.

Here’s my as-I-scrolled list — I’ve put iTunes links to every one:

- Evernote for keeping notes, files, WiFi passwords across multiple devices (not just computers)
- Kindle, from Amazon, to read my ebooks when I’m on-the-go
- Amazon Mobile, for buying stuff that comes to mind (e.g. shoelaces, batteries, etc)
- SocialCam, for shooting video and then sending that video out to Facebook/Twitter
- Posterous, for maintaining my own personal blog/blog for friends/family
- Google+ app is really, really good — you need to try ‘Huddle’
- Spotify, for audio on-demand (tenner a month)
- Find My iPhone, so I can locate the iPhone if it’s lost
- DropBox, obviously — have you got a dropbox account?
- LinkedIn is sometimes useful
- Osfoora, for twitter — my client of choice
- UK Train Times — national rail app, expensive but super useful. Really like ‘next train home’
- British Airways — so you don’t need to ever bother with paper boarding tickets ever again
- Instagram, for snapping cool looking photos.
- Hullomail, for visual voicemail because (so you can always access your voicemails via the app and in your gmail)
- ON Voicefeed is another visual voicemail app, it’s brilliant
- LogMeIn, for accessing your desktop remotely. I use this two or three times a day for getting files and controlling my home machines from wherever I am
- Skyfire — full desktop browsing experience
- Audioboo, for recording audio ‘thoughts’ and sticking them on twitter (also, iPadio)
- Qik Plus, for live broadcasting video straight from my phone
- MIR, the mobile industry review application (just a news feed) that I paid $400 to a chap called Pavel to make
- Shoeboxed, for taking photos of receipts and having somebody else type in the value, company, date etc. so the accountant can download it later on
- OpenTable for booking Gaucho Grill in 10 seconds
- Reeder is a really good Google Reader client
- SoundHound is a billion times better than Shazam — song identification (every time I’ve tried Shazam lately, I’ve got a ‘sorry, dunno’ reply! Hardly ever from SoundHound..
- Sky+, because sometimes — rarely — I want to record stuff from live TV
- Touchnote, for sending my digital photos as real postcards to granny every week. She loves it.
- WordPress, for maintaining the sites on-the-go
- PizzaExpress, because I can’t be bothered with the 60-second faff with the credit card machine. I always pay via PayPal with the app now.

There are plenty more applications I do use, but these ones are most definitely regulars.

What about you? I’d very much welcome a list from you of your *every day* apps. If you don’t have much time, stick down one or two apps in the comments?

I strongly recommend have a read of his post.

It’s called simply the “Amazon Kindle”. But it’s not like any Kindle you’ve seen before. It displays content in full color. It has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen. And it runs Android.

via Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It. | TechCrunch.

The market dynamics about to be unleashed are going to have serious, serious implications for the operators. Pay close attention to MG’s point about a 3G Kindle tablet. Some operator groups are no doubt having kittens over this already. What happens if you do the worldwide deal for unlimited Amazon Kindle 3G data? Does your network take a pummelling? Or do you gain a fantastic partner, guaranteed stable revenue and the opportunity for some upside? Or are you relegated to a lower level whilst the tablet wars finally commence?

It’s going to be a really, really interesting final stretch to Christmas in the mobile industry.

I wanted to document the rather astounding news (reported by Staci at paidContent.org) that the almighty Amazon is now doing more than $1 billion in sales through mobile devices (including Kindle).

I’m not surprised. I’ve been using Amazon’s iPhone app at least a few times a week to order batteries, nappies, books, chargers, a whole host of things. I am finding myself using the app to order the small stuff that I keep forgetting. Thoroughly useful. And it all adds up.

Good news for Amazon, good news for the medium of mobile.

(Amazon’s iPhone app is here on iTunes)

Google hopes to fight of Amazon’s Kindle which has sold 1/2m to date (Sprint estimates from users downloading books). Amazon is expected to launch the Kindle v2 later this month which is slimmer and has a metallic back (there are leaked pictures on the ‘net).

The e-book market is expected to be worth $1.2bn by 2010.

Google is hoping to extend its service soon with the addition of out-of-print titles and even current titles doing deals with publishers.

Now kwiry has got two new additions – Amazon and Netfilx. For the former you can now send texts and get the name of a film, book, whatever added to you Amazon wishlist. For the latter, you can get films added straight to your Netflix queue.

It’s a very clever little piece of software, but there is one minor gripe. It’s a US only service at the moment and while there is a workaround for international users, it would be nice to see a dedicated service for those of us on the other side of the pond.