Kindle Fire. Another platform that pitches books against games and movies.

The newly announced Kindle Fire tablet may not be the quite the boost to ebooks (do they need a boost, they seem to be doing an admirable job at replacing paper) that some folks think. Part of the pitch for the ‘Fire is that it’s “Angry Birds Ready”. Just like Apple’s iPad what this means in practice is that books (or more specifically the written word) will be competing with games and video on the ‘Fire. In other words Amazon’s new tablet will be doing its upmost to present all kinds of shiny distractions from reading… Not that reading is the be-all and end-all, but I wonder how many Kindle Fire users will find themselves reading more than they would with a regular Kindle, or less.

Still, it’s another viable platform for interactive books, a medium I really hope doesn’t go the way of ‘interactive CD-ROMs’… And it’s real competition for Apple, which can only make both parties better.

For the moment I think I’ll focus on iOS development, there’s enough to learn there to keep me happy for a couple of years and who knows what ebook related goodies will be announced on October 4^th.