I bought the Kindle 2 on the day it was released and received it last week.  Since then, I’ve bought and read two books on it and am starting a third.  Remarkable pace for me (a guy that used to read 3-5 books a year).  When not reading, I had some ideas that would make the Kindle even better.  Plus, Amazon could do these things next week – no need for hardware redesign or huge R&D.  Here goes:

1. Kindle Friends - Let me see what my friends are reading and where they are in the book.  Also a way to discuss or message them about the book.
2. Kindle Clubs - Wider sweeping than “Friends”, Kindle Clubs center around particular genres or titles.  You don’t only have to have a giant Oprah club, but you could have a club for marketers, or organic gardeners.
3. Note Sharing – Ability to share all or select notes with everyone or Kindle Friends.
4. No books over $9.99 – This is the one thing that’s driving me nuts.  I know all about the price of content, but publishers should knock the prices back on all titles.  Everything.  Some books you may actually take a hit on, but there are others that are pure cash cows and you’ll more than make it up.
5. Book rentals – Almost like a for pay library.  The longer you take to read a book, the more it costs.  If rentals are .50 a day, then after 20 days, you’d just own the book.
6. Consistent samples – The samples you can download range from pages and pages of endorsements to a chapter and a half.  They should standardize the sample.  Maybe just make it Chapter 1 and 2.
7. Best sellers by price – or a bargain bin – When I flip through the Kindle Bestsellers, many of the titles are free or well below the $9.99 price point.  What’s that tell you, content creators?  Would be great to be able to sort through these gems separately from the full priced (and some over-priced) titles.
8. Kindle University – A derivative of the “Personal MBA“, Amazon could create lists of titles that would provide beginning, moderate, and advanced coverage of specific topics.  How about a series on woodworking, or a series on marketing?
9. Zoom in on a cover in the store – Easy enough.  Let us see the cover in the full screen.
10. With “page count” also show “locations” – In books, you read page by page.  With the Kindle, readers track their progress through % read and “locations”.  For example, instead of “page 30″, it’s “location 235 out of 3765″.  Kindle users will eventually start to think in locations rather than pages, so help the conversion by listing both in the book description.

There you go.  Something to work on over the weekend, Amazon!