Amazon opens Kindle to third party developers

Amazon has announced the availability of a software development kit for third party developers to build new applications that work on its popular Kindle eBook reader. This is happening just before the rumored launch of a new tablet device by Apple next week.

To be made available as a limited beta in February, the Kindle Development Kit (KDK) will include sample code, documentation and a simulator to help developers test on the 6-inch Kindle, as well as the 9.7-inch Kindle DX.

Anticipated programs might range from word games, to travel guides, and will be made available at the Kindle Store later in the year. An important piece of information here would be how revenue would be split. In the case of the KDK, revenue share is expected to follow a 70:30 formula, with the larger component going toward the developer.

Where data transferred by the application is concerned, the bandwidth comes free if the application uses less than 100KB per month.  Anything beyond that will be charged at $0.15 per MB, to be passed on to the customer as a monthly charge.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at Wired 

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