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From Knowledge@W. P. Carey comes a report that the Amazon Kindle was the “darling of the Smart Services Summit” recently hosted by Qualcomm in San Diego.

First, the article defines “smart services” as a term that “covers the field also know as M2M, which means machine-to-machine communications to some or machine-to-man communications to others.” But wait . . . there’s more: the term “also refers to the customer focus and strategy that transforms technology into a solution.”

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The media buzz on the Amazon Kindle continues at mid-week, following a Citigroup analyst’s positive estimates of 2008 Kindle sales on Monday.

The Top Stocks Blog over at MSN Money staked out somewhat of a contrarian position. Under the headline, “Amazon’s Kindle unlikely to set world on fire,” the blogger noted that although some think the Kindle will have a first-year sales record comparable to that of the Apple iPod, “[o]thers believe it’s wishful thinking to assume John Grisham will ever be as popular as Jay-Z.”

After noting some features of the Amazon Kindle — ability to download books over the wireless Whispernet network, the glare-free screen and enlargeable screen fonts, the Top Stocks blogger held firm to the notion of print-and-paper books: “Doodling in the corners and turning the pages into a flipbook, alas, can still only be done in regular books.”

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The news media and the blogosphere are filled with Amazon Kindle buzz this week, stemming from the Monday comments of Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney about the strength of Kindle sales in 2008.

InternetNews.com reports that Citigroup described Amazon Kindle sales as surpassing expectations, “and could double a previous estimate for units sold this year.”

Mahaney, the article says, esimated that Kindle sales for 2008 could reach a total of 380,000, which would be comparable to the first sales year for Apple’s iPod. In a note to clients, the article added, Mahaney opined that ” ‘the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world.’ ”

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The potential usefulness of ebook reading devices for travelers has not escaped the attention of bloggers and journalists. For example, we’ve recently noted a review from a Sony Reader user who was about to take the Reader along for a week at the beach, another review about taking an Ectaco jetBook along on a cruise vacation, and the Amazon Kindle’s presence on Time Magazine’s list of “gotta have” travel gadgets.

Concierge.com has also weighed in on the topic of ereaders for travelers. Tom Loftus recently explained why he views the Amazon Kindle as the “most important piece of travel technology since the inflatable neck pillow”:

Say you’re on the road and you suddenly realize that you must have–must have!–Oprah’s new book. All you need to do is turn on the Kindle and connect to the store. (The connection is through Sprint’s EV-DO network. It’s free.) You’ll have to pay for the book, but it will be cheaper than the dead-tree version. Or, if you wish, you can download sample chapters for free.

Earlier, a gear review at Concierge.com discussed the value of the Sony Reader to travelers. Noting a perceived tepid response to the Sony Reader in some quarters, the reviewer had this to say:

To these arbiters of judgment, I offer a single and uncontestable fact: My 80-day circumnavigation would have been much less pleasurable without my Sony Reader. Thanks to it, I was able to take part–whenever I wanted, and for long, memorable stretches–in one of my most favorite of activities: reading.

So if you have a getaway planned for these last few weeks of summer or the upcoming Labor Day weekend, you might want to think about giving the ebook reader of your choice a “field test” during your getaway.

Is the competition between the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle ereader devices a repeat of the competition between the Sony Walkman and the Apple iPod?   That’s the position staked out by Financial Times columnist John Gapper.

Noting that Apple managed to integrate the iTunes store, and device hardware and software better than Sony, the article says that in the sphere of ebook reading devices Sony “has just made the same mistake all over again. It has squandered an early lead in a new field because another company was better not just at inventing an electronic device but also at linking it to a wireless network and making it easy for consumers to use.”  Amazon, the FT article says, “has swept past Sony with the Kindle, a rival e-book reader that is showing every sign of becoming the iPod of this nascent market.”

Sony was first on the ebook scene with its Reader, the article adds, but a year later Amazon launched the Kindle, with links to the Amazon online store via a wireless 3G network.  There are indications that the Sony Reader may also incorporate wireless connectivity, but “[t]he danger for Sony is that it is already too late. Amazon has grabbed the market-leading position from Sony and established a stronger brand, which is what happened with the iPod and the Walkman.”

SlashGear recently performed a side-by-side comparison of two ebook reading devices — the Amazon Kindle and the iRex Iliad.

Their verdict? Go with the Amazon Kindle, “[b]ecause it’s cheaper and does what it says it will do. Granted, there’s great room for improvement here, but the extended battery life and seamless use with Amazon.com make it the logical choice for those looking for an easy way to read on the go.”

The reviewer did appreciate some features of the iRex Iliad, such as a stylus that enables the user to make notations on book pages. However, the reviewer concluded, “[i]f it lived up to its promises, the iRex model would be a clear winner and perhaps worth the extra cash, but it’s not there yet.”

A recent post at Blog Shop Review states a preference for the Amazon Kindle over the Sony Reader.

I have owned the first generation Sony Reader since last December, and read over twenty books on it, and just recently purchased the Kindle. While the Kindle is not perfect, it is superior to the Sony Reader in several meaningful ways that make it a far superior choice[.]

The first reason listed for the Kindle preference is available books: “[T]he number of books available for purchase for the Kindle is at least triple the number available from Sony.” (We have noted here at eReader Central that Sony did recently announce support for the EPUB format in the updated PRS-505 Reader, which serves to increase the number of ebooks that are compatible with that model of the Reader.)

In addition, the Blog Shop Review stated that with the Kindle, “[b]uying books is far easier; they are transferred directly to the Kindle without having to be downloaded first to a computer.” Other features listed as in the Kindle’s favor include screen contrast, available font sizes, the ease of changing pages, and the number of books that can be held in the device’s memory.

The Amazon Kindle ebook reader is Number 9 on the Time.com list of 25 Gotta Have Travel Gadgets.

Amazon’s first-generation e-book reader certainly needs improvement — the page-turn buttons are awkwardly placed, among other things — but anyone who likes to read on the road should consider it an essential companion. That’s because you can take a veritable library with you. The 10.3-ounce device holds around 200 books; infinitely more if you load books onto external SD cards. Better yet is Whispernet, Amazon’s built-in wireless service — it piggybacks on Sprint’s EVDO network — that delivers books on demand in seconds.

The other gadgets on the Time.com “gotta have” list include an assortment of items for travelers, such as a universal adaptor, camera, battery pack, portable DVD player, and video recorder.

People who are users of ereading devices and software like things to be simple, says a recent article at Teleread. The bottom line? “The only people who understand ebooks are Amazon (and Fictionwise). Everybody else doesn’t get it.”

The writer reached this conclusion after using the Sony Reader and Adobe Digital Editions, and apparently finding the process cumbersome.

Hey, people read ebooks and people like things simple.

I’m a people, too, and I like things simple as well. This hit me like a fish in the face when I installed Fictionwise’s eReader on my iPhone. Want a book - go to Fictionwise on the phone and download one. It hit me again, more like a whale in the face, when a I told a colleague about a free ebook being offered by Amazon. He has a Kindle and, while I watched he fired it up and downloaded the book while standing outside in the sunshine. No computer, no USB cable, no card reader, no Sony software, no Adobe software, no Calibre software, no conversion programs, no WiFi router.

The current generation of the Amazon Kindle is not without flaws, says Ars Technica, but “Kindle’s strong sales have galvanized the eBook market, and Amazon itself is developing a new series of Kindle products.”

The details of the update, however, have yet to be announced, which means we don’t know yet if we’ll see a hardware/software refresh of the existing Kindle, a new “Kindle 2.0″ hardware design, or a new, student-oriented Kindle aimed directly at the textbook market.

Priced properly, Kindle could become an overnight sensation in the education market, even at the current initial price of $359. College textbook prices can easily hit $500 or more in a single semester; a one-time fee for Kindle that lowered total book bills would be the ultimate no-brainer for a gadget-loving college freshman.

“Get set–though I don’t know when–for the era of e-reader/cellphone hybrids,” says TeleRead.

It’s difficult to predict who will win among competing display technlogies, the article says.

Who knows which display tech will be dominant? Or whether another company –Sony, or Apple maybe?–might beat Amazon to the marketplace with a full color equivalent of the Kindle blended in with a cellphone. It’s bound to happen, however.

Correctly, while discussing an extra £25 million that the U.K.-based Plastic Logic won in funding from Amadeus Capital Partners and others, PC Pro News noted the Kindle-related possibilities of flexible screens. Flex plastic would not just be more rugged but also lighter and cheaper, and the company says that phones, along with laptops, are another target beyond e-readers alone.

A recent Crunchgear article noted the unit sales and revenue success for the Amazon Kindle (240,000 Kindle units have been sold, says TechCrunch), and suggested that the impact may be end up being particularly strong in the college textbook market.

Students are used to paying outrageous prices for textbooks. Even though the excuse “it’s the high cost of paper” wears thin rather quickly, students will always need texts. I’m sure future generations will hear “it’s the high cost of production” as the excuse for overpriced e-texts, but the fact remains students and texts go hand in hand. Just the simple luxury of not lugging around a heavy library should spark the market.

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