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Never let it be said that Jeff Bezos thinks small. Not one for short stories…Bezos prefers epic best sellers.

He took an idea and his own ambition and wrote the book on what at the time was thought impossible…he made an online-only retailer profitable when he created Amazon.com. Not only is Amazon now one of the largest e-tailers on the internet, it is also one of the largest book retailers anywhere in the world, period. It is now a dominate force in the world of publishing and practically a household name.

When Amazon wrote itself into the world of e-books it did so in just as big a way with the Kindle e-book reader and thanks to Amazon’s retail might and vast library, it now rules the e-reader niche market. However, Bezos understands that the true money lies not in the e-book hardware, but the e-book software….not in the bindings, but in the books. Therefore he quickly it possible to port the Kindle software (and all the books you buy for it from Amazon, ‘natch) to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Flush with that success, he is moving onto the next chapter.

According to Business Week, Amazon will be porting the Kindle software to additional mobile platforms such as Windows Mobile. They came to that conclusion based on recent positions for hire advertised by Amazon, as follows:

Amazon lists 17 open mobile-related positions on its Web site, including for software engineers, a senior product manager for mobile payments, and a director of mobile applications. One job ad says Amazon expects its hire to "develop partnerships with mobile companies." Another posting seeks applicants who can write programs for Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system.

While I would certainly welcome such a high profile addition to the Windows Mobile app world, it will be a tough nut to crack for Amazon. Unlike with the Kindle itself and the iPhone, Windows Mobile does not run on a closed system. Any WinMo software needs to be designed to run on a wide range of devices, with different features, different processors and hardware, different screen sizes and both regular and touch screens. In that situation it will be very hard for Amazon to truly control the “reading experience”.

I think a Kindle on Windows Mobile app will come to pass since there is money to be made, but it will take time and may very well need to limited to certain phones, vendors or carriers. Also, what about Android, or Symbian? What about an application that can run on Netbooks, either Windows or Linux? There is a vast pool of readers around the world out there who would be eager to buy books from Amazon, but serving them may be another story.

Perhaps in the sequel?

Zealot (444 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).