Amazon WhisperSync to take on iCloud?

Amazon’s WhisperSync is one of Kindle’s most useful features: the ability to pick up and continue reading a book where you left off despite reading it previously on a different device is a big deal for a lot of people. With Amazon’s recent launch of its own Android tablet, it looks like the company might be preparing to take it to the next level. With the WhisperSync functionality working with Amazon Instant Video, it looks like the company could easily expand it to include other files as well i.e. calendars, documents and more.

Amazon already has Cloud Player and Cloud Drive in place, which gives it a head start over Apple’s iCloud offering. Plus the fact that Amazon will make its services available on other platforms (Cloud Player and Cloud Drive is only for Android now, but Kindle WhisperSync currently works on both iOS and Android; iCloud will definitely not be available on Android devices) which give it a larger potential user base.

Initial reports about the number of Amazon Fire tablets pre-ordered show a warm welcome to the device’s arrival, so it would make sense for the company to expand WhisperSync to do more than just keep bookmarks in your eBooks and videos. However it hasn’t made public any plans to do such things with WhisperSync yet, even though it is in a good position to do so. iCloud will hit iOS devices in a week’s time, and we’ll see if Amazon offers anything in response.

What are your thoughts about Amazon WhisperSync competing against Apple’s iCloud? Would it be a viable move for the company?

George Wong
Categories: Tablets, Web
Tags: Amazon, Android, Apple Inc, icloud, ios 5, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Tablet