The next rev of Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reader is due out in a week. With speculation running high on the type of features and functions Amazon will introduce with the new rev, here’s my small wish list:

1. Drop in price, both for content and for the device. The same model has worked well for other digital entertainment media. hulu hosts a whole lot of content and forces me to look a a short ad as I am viewing my shows…acceptable. A similar model could be followed by Amazon where they can offset the low cost of the device by advertising (and since they will know more about me as a user, the ads will be much more relevant on all segments like age, geography, income level, type of content I am consuming, etc, etc)
2. Open up the device, treat is as a platform: Right now the Kindle serves as a device that allows me to read books and blogs…what’s stopping me from consuming other type of textual content on it? Since everything routes through Amazon, the issue creeps up where only Amazon gets to decide what goes on the Kindle. Admittedly, there is a way for users to tell the publishers what content they would like to see on the Kindle, the cycle from this request to the actual availability of content is so long that the user could care less. Amazon should allow any developer to create content buckets (think of books and blogs as buckets) and then for the creative types to create content for these buckets. The Kindle now becomes a platform where I can not only read books but also play games like Sudoku and since it’s a networked device, I could be playing with other users.
3. Aesthetics: Amazon could do a lot more with the industrial design of the Kindle. Make it a much more refined product as compared to the prototype-looking visual that it carries today. Oh, and please let me have my Kindle in more than one color!

The device has been sold out since the day it was announced. It will be interesting to see what changes are introduced and how they effect demand.