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Amazon Kindle’s VP Ian Freed just finished talking at a panel about The Future of Mobile Data products @Mobilize.

I have to admit his perspective was, to me, the most interesting amongst the various (very good, don’t get me wrong) standpoints of the other people attending the panel (from Nokia, Dash Navigation, Sony and Qualcomm). He showed how easy it is reading a newspaper from the Kindle as well as buying a book from Amazon.

The first thought that came up to my mind is: it’s like an iPod for books! I never thought of this previously since I’ve never been a fan of the Amazon’s Kindle so far. It’s not really an attractive device and most you do with Kindle can be done with other devices you usually carry with you. The question is: is it really true? Honestly, I’m more and more changing my mind about this.

Ian reminded us that convergence is the future, many portable devices can do many things at the same time, but at the end of the day when it comes to take a very good photo, you use your $1000 DSLR camera, when it comes to play a videogame seriously, you use your PlayStation and when it comes to record a video, you use your “serious” videocamera. Of course, the final example is: when it comes to read a book or newspaper, you must use the Amazon’s Kindle. And what about the just released Peek which only purpose is managing your emails? How does it sound?

My take is that It definitely sounds reasonable and, in the long run, I think he’s right. I personally have an iPod, a Nokia phone and a Sony PSP and I use them all. When I travel and stay away from home for a long time, I never thought of carrying with me just one device, but I put them all in my luggage.

What do you think? Can Amazon Kindle be the iPod for books?

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A discussion is going on at Mobilize about the opportunity to move applications to browsers.

and most of the audience agree that web is going to be the platform for next generation applications for mobile.

Microsoft’s John O’Rourke states that for some applications, the native approach is still the best and most effective one. I have to agree on this, since mobile browsers, maybe with the exception of iPhone’s Safari, are in my opinion not ready yet to host feature-rich applications as those we are used to on our Mac or PC browser.

The other point is about how difficult is to install an application for a “normal” user. Bundled applications certainly help so that consumers don’t have to struggle finding the right app to perform certain activities. Moreover, it is not easy these days for a developer to market an app, so the “centralized” approach provided by Apple for iPhone/Touch apps could be the right way to go both for users and developers.

My prediction is that thanks to technologies like Flash and the huge innovation coming to mobile browsers from all the players in this market, the web based approach is certainly the way to go, but we are not ready yet and it will take 2-3 years at least. Besides, according to the audience, the consumer market will be the driver for innovation in this field so it’s definitely something everyone must take into account.

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