Amazon's Jeff Bezos is clear about the direction that he is taking with the Kindle. Despite increasing pressure from competing e-readers flooding the market and the launch of the Apple iPad, the chief executive says that Amazon intends for the Kindle to remain as a device positioned toward "serious readers." Bezos elaborated on how when he said, "There are always ways to do the job better if you are willing to focus in on one arena." "Serious readers are going to want a purpose-built device," he added, "because it's an important activity for them."

Bezos's comments on the Kindle came at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle. Specifically, users should not expect a color Kindle for a while, since replacing the e-ink display for a color LCD is the only viable option to get color at this point--since the color version of e-ink is still under development. Obviously, the reading experience however, will not be as satisfactory from a readability point of view.

While it is true that the Kindle does offer superior weight, battery life and screen readability compared to the iPad, the question that is likely faced by many early tech-adopters is the attraction of having a multi-functional device. On this front, the iPad certainly has a strong appeal. As such, a sizable portion of these "serious" readers could well be drawn in the iPad's direction unless Amazon can come out with a satisfactory counter, and soon.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at InformationWeek