ActiveContent
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Kindle's active content given 100KB free monthly bandwidth allowance
We were wondering how Kindle's impending active content (read: apps) would be harnessing that free Whispernet bandwidth. As it turns out, there's just a smidgen allowed for gratis. According to the terms laid out by Amazon, there's a 70 / 30 revenue split, with that smaller percentage going to Bezos and co. "net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB." The price tiers is a little simpler: apps can be free if their download over 3G is less than 1MB and they use less than 100KB per month, per user. Apps between 1MB and 10MB require a one-time purchase fee that offsets the bandwidth usage, and likewise a subscription fee is needed for those that plan on allowing over 100KB of a monthly data streaming. (To put that in perspective, this post -- just the copy -- is 4KB. That image above is 120KB.) Anything over 10MB requires a download over WiFi, and the maximum file size is 100MB... and if anyone manages to justify a 100MB app that runs on a greyscale E Ink display, color us impressed.
Kindle dev kit announced, 'active content' coming to Kindle Store later this year
Amazon's just announced the Kindle Development Kit, or KDK for short, which will be rolled out starting next month in limited beta and then to wait-listed folks "as space becomes available." The apps, here called "active content," will eventually be available for download via the Kindle Store later this year. EA Mobile is already signed up to participant, and Handmark has committed to creating "an active Zagat guide" We'll be interested to see what comes out of this, and it probably goes without saying, but something tells us Amazon isn't gonna let web browsers or music streamers through the front gates and over its free 3G service.
