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With a front page letter on Amazon’s site from Jeff Bezos and a New York press conference, Amazon officially debuted Kindle today. With the launch, they are putting answer to some of the questions that hovered ahead of the e-book reader’s launch. Opinions are now flying about the quality of the interface, about the depth of available content, and even, Amazon’s long term goals. A few quick takes:

•Design
More PC than Mac, more Zune than iPod, the Kindle is an ergonomic and functional offering but it doesn’t look slick. It’s small and light. The display from E Ink is easy to read but monochrome. Taken as a whole, Kindle doesn’t have the magical kind of design that draws second looks or makes it iconic. For version 1.0, this is not a device destined for beauty pageants. But then, Click to Read More

It was supposedly due in October.  That deadline came and went.  Now, still in time for the holidays, here comes Kindle.

Amazon’s much speculated digital book reader will debut Monday at an event to be held at the Union Square W Hotel in New York City.

Jeff Bezos will be on hand to introduce the product.  A few celebrity endorsements are likely on track as well.  Kindle will be Amazon’s first foray into an in-house brand of consumer electronics. 

Vaunted as a competitor to Sony’s Reader, the Kindle portable book reader was built with similar easy-on-the-eyes display technology from E Ink.  Like the new iPod Touch, it will be equipped with WiFi access to directly buy and download books from Amazon’s digital store.   The image from early FCC filings suggests it will also have an onboard keyboard and a possible backlight for nighttime viewing. Expectations are Kindle will retail for around $399.

The question is: will Kindle, or e-Books in general, catch on with consumers.  Today, the market for e-Books is conservatively estimated at less than $30m.  Click to Read More

Albert Einstein once said that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Near the middle of every month market research firmNPD Group tries to apply that maxim to the gaming industry with release of retail statistics for the prior month’s sales. The numbers are meant to show the direction of the market, and individual products. Today, the October numbers hit the wires. They don’t account for an apparent turn around for Sony’s PS3, which began moving well with price cuts, but the numbers do give a snapshot of the gaming industry as it enters into the two biggest months of their year. As has been the case all year, the industry is hot.

For October, just about a year after the release of the Wii, Nintendo returned to it’s reign as king of the consoles and portables. (Nintendo was briefly displaced in September result of both strong Halo related Xbox’ sales and a limited supply of Wii’s).

As has been the case all year, the Wii remains hard to get and is selling out consistently. Click to Read More

Dynamic in-game advertising only accounted for a fraction of the nearly $80m in revenue in-game advertising generated in 2006. Still, the nascent industry is poised to overtake product placements, and potentially, by bringing a recurring revenue stream, even change the underlying revenue models for the entire gaming industry. Major game publishers are taking note. With projections of a billion dollar market opportunity by 2011, they’d be foolish not to.

Wednesday, Activision followed Electronic Arts lead and cut a deal with Microsoft’s Massive Inc. Ad Network to bring dynamic in game ads to their hot selling Guitar Hero III game. (EA Sports struck a deal with Massive in late July).

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The markets may be volatile and concerned but the VC industry is chugging ahead.  There have been 4 IPO’s and 4 $100m-plus M&A exits for portfolio companies at Accel Ventures this year.  Buoyed by that success, the firm just closed their tenth fund with $520m available for investment.  That total, while still below the $950m raised in 2000,  is up a handsome 30% over prior fund Accel IX  (IX closed with $400m in 2004). 

Accel hasn’t been involved in any new digital media or entertainment related deals the past couple weeks, but other firms have committed plenty of capital.  Takkle, Vivox and Vobile are among the recipients.  On the other hand, AmeriTV, a supposed IPTV company that sounds like Joost, apparently didn’t receive capital despite a press release to the contrary.  AmeriTV’s financing, possibly even the existence of the company, appear to have been a hoax that tripped up a few news sites that didn’t check on their facts.

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Shortly after EchoStar bought Sling Media in September the story mills starting grinding out reports that no sooner than Sling was absorbed, they’d be spun off into a new company with EchoStar splitting itself in half.   That buzz gained ferocity a few days later on rumors that AT&T was circling to acquire one half.  The stock surged and one analyst at Oppenheimer even  upgraded his rating from Neutral to Buy. 

From late September forward, the writing was on the wall that EchoStar was in some way putting itself in play.  Their Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen confirmed they were exploring it.  Now, courtesy of an information statement filed with the SEC, details of the proposed spin-off are starting to emerge.  A buyer could still step  in to pick up one side before this all plays out, but one way or another,  it’s looking pretty certain the company will split.  In fact, it seems it’s not so much a matter of if as when.

Per the deal described in the preliminary review documents, it looks to be a stock distribution to existing investors.   The current company would divide into two halves and trade as two separate companies on Nasdaq.  Half one, which retains the  EchoStar Communications Corporation name, would be renamed  Dish Network Corporation.  It would become home to the Dish Network satellite television service.  Their 13.7m subscribers would remain with them. 

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The promise of high definition DVD for consumers is better image quality and more features.  For movie production houses, that’s all nice but arguably as important is the promise of better encryption standards.  The more secure the content, the less likely there will be theft.   Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone put it  succinctly in a speech Thursday.  He said  “If content is king, copyright is its castle.”

There’s no question that castle should be secure. The trouble for the studio’s is, when it comes to software, if it can be built it can be broken.  For every tally they put on the scorecard for more security, somewhere, someone is going to try and undo it – even if the only goal is to see if they can unlock what’s supposed to be secure.  And given enough time, they’re going to be successful at breaking through. Reports are, that happened this week with Blu Ray.

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