It’s understandable why Amazon would want to get into the smartphone business. The number of people that own smartphones is growing higher all the time. Google said it now activates 550,000 Android devices every day. To Amazon, that equates to 550,000 potential long-time customers. It would be great for Amazon to be in the pockets of customers twenty-four hours a day. That means more customers renting movies, buying books, purchasing music and comparison shopping with Amazon providing the alternative results. In order to reach this goal, Amazon first has to convince people to buy the phone in the first place. That may be a problem.

Now that Google Music is out, the big question is will anyone use it? I can’t speak for everyone, but in my case, Google stands to make at least a couple bucks off me. That’s something iTunes never did.

In the mobile phone industry, manufacturers of Android phones tend to get caught up on select features. When Android started to support Flash in web browsers, companies made sure to use Flash in marketing materials as a way to differentiate its products from the iPhone and iPad. Now that Flash on mobile is dead, these companies are going to have to grasp at another feature. At the same time, we’re always hearing about dual-core processors and how many gigahertz any given Android device can put out. Sure a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor sounds powerful, but Android users know that lag can persist despite benchmarks. That’s why I’m approaching the emergence of quad-core processors with skepticism.

The big hang up on the new Amazon Kindle DX is the incredibly high price ($489). The large e-ink display certainly is easy on the eyes, but hard on the wallet. Some people even speculate that the DX was introduced, in part, to make the Kindle 2 seem less pricey.

Here’s the real killer application for the large screen DX — make it a virtual printer available on your network. Imagine a printer that never runs out of ink or paper. Never. Think about why you print things. You want a portable and easy to read version of whatever you were looking at on your screen.

There’s a rumor floating around that Amazon will be coming out with a new Kindle within the year. That got me thinking back when I spoke to several Amazon representatives at the Kindle 2 unveiling.

People think that the next Kindle will have a touchscreen. Is it possible? Definitely. One of the Amazon reps I spoke to discussed how Amazon did in fact look at having a touchscreen in its reader. The reason a touchscreen was rejected by Amazon was current touchscreens are too reflective.

Jeff Bezos stated numerous times that he wanted the Kindle to not impact the reader’s experience with the text of the author. A reflective touchscreen would get tiresome quickly. After playing with Sony’s latest reader with a touchscreen, you can’t help but notice the reflection on the screen even if the text is easy on the eyes.

Tired of being a consumer of content? Maybe this year you want to produce content. How do you want to get your voice heard? This could be your time to start blogging. There are lots of options out there, so here’s an overview of some of the easiest ways to start.