Five Ways Amazon Could Improve Kindle

When it launched last year, the Amazon Kindle gave new life to the flagging world of e-books. And rightly so: The first Kindle had a flawed industrial design, but it nonetheless had two distinct benefits that no other competing device had.

The first secret weapon: Kindle's 3G cellular radio and Whispernet EvDO service (supplied by Sprint), which provides free, integrated connectivity to the Internet. The second: Kindle's seamless integration with Amazon's storefront, which Amazon says now offers 150,000 titles in both paper and print versions.

This double salvo has kept the Kindle in a class all its own. But with the second-generation Kindle, Amazon has a chance to really to reshape Kindle and the role it could play in the nascent e-book market.

Rumors abound as to the features we'll find in Kindle 2. Those rumors should be put to rest at a press conference on Monday morning, where Amazon is expected to officially unveil Kindle 2. From the looks of the leaked Kindle 2 photos and information, the new Kindle will be notably thinner and less angular--which means Amazon has addressed at least part of the first item on our list for Kindle improvements.

So what else could Amazon offer in Kindle 2? The wish list below considers not only Amazon's need to stay competitive with other e-book readers, but also takes into account the competitive pressures Kindle could face from other mobile devices, like the Apple iPhone 3G and T-Mobile's G1 (I, for one, enjoy reading news and books on my mobile handset, and am thrilled by the prospect of a news that Amazon is working on a Kindle book reader for other platforms, too.

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