–Dan Kelly, Attorney
Steve has posted several times on “brand baiting” gimmicks–typically involving spam-type e-mails with enticing pictures or offers of well-known products or brands as rewards for “participation” . . . in, well, God knows what. (Steve’s previous posts here, here, and here.) Take a glance at them just to get the principle, then tell us what you think of this:
Huh? Kindle for iPad? How does that work? No Kindle required? But you can still buy one for $189? Definitely bold. Possibly bad. Maybe good. Giving the benefit of all doubts, perhaps Apple has given permission to Amazon to do this. If not, I would suspect (though I don’t know) that Apple at least knows that Amazon is selling a Kindle app for use on iPad, as it appears that app developers have to register with Apple in some way. Even so, Apple has an application to register the configuration of the iPad as a trademark, so it evidently views the mere appearance of the iPad as a trademark.
Of course, maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. The Amazon page to which Kindle.com resolves shows this image:
(What, no Kindle for Kindle?) Kindle is obviously now more than a device–it is a service. Probably a smart move, especially if the iPad is killing Kindle device sales (and I don’t know that it is). If you can’t beat ’em, might as well join ’em. (And, as of this writing, it does not look like Barnes & Noble’s Nook ebook reader has made the jump to a service-based orientation yet.)
False Advertising Bonus: Kindle is Amazon’s #1 bestseller? Really? If you dig, it is #1 in sales in Electronics, so I suppose the claim is not literally false . . .