5 Things Amazon Needs To Fix In the Kindle DX

Amazon has released a larger version of the Kindle 2, which adopts the DX suffix and comes with a much higher $489 price tag. The device, which will be available in the summer, could well be one of this year's best selling consumer gadgets.

The biggest online retailer in town has already said that it wants to make every book ever printed, in any language, available on the Kindle in less than 60 seconds and with more than 275,000 books available, Amazon could well have clinched a winner.

But we ain't there yet, especially as the Kindle DX suffers from a number of issues that could hamper its meteoric rise and restrict it to a niche market. There are five things that Amazon could to improve it chances of becoming the iPod of Print.

(1) Price

The Kindle DX is too expensive at $489. Even the $359 Kindle 2, with its 6-inch screen is too expensive for most. Amazon needs to sharply reduce the device's price if it is to sell more than a few hundreds of thousands of them. Other manufacturers like Sony will also need to do their bit and compete more efficiently against the Kindle. There's also the threat that Apple could well launch a supersized iPod touch tablet which we believe will be a dud.

(2) WiFi

Still though, such a device, if sold for around $500, complete with a colour screen and a few adjustments could make the life of the DX a misery. It still lacks basics like WiFi connectivity which is on the brink of ridiculous. We understand that Amazon is trying to emulate Apple; the problem is that Apple executes its plans almost perfectly. The 2G imperfection in the first Apple iPhone was quickly zapped. WiFi in the Kindle family would have made life so much simpler.