Slate today has an interesting little article about how Sony can beat the Kindle. Essentially, they boil their suggested strategy down to the following: “Study everything the iPod’s rivals did. Then do the exact opposite.”

Heh.

Since I love my iPhone as much as I am wary of the Kindle, this sentence could have been written just for me.

But it’s a good point. I think they are drawing an interesting comparison between the Kindle and the iPhone as the standout and seemingly untoppleable leaders in their respective gizmo niche.

It’s an interesting comparison, but I don’t think it’s completely accurate. I think I would equate the Kindle more to the Apple Newton than the iPhone. The iPhone is everything the Newton wanted to be… with the difference being that technology had finally caught up by the time the iPhone came around.

Like the Newton, the Kindle is a bit ahead of it’s technology – it’s close, as it can do everything it should, just not as well as it needs to. Like the Newton it’s also too expensive for what it does, and only a few people have one. Though I think with both the owners are pretty dedicated to them.

So, instead of following the Kindle perhaps it’s would-be toppler should think of it as the primitive older brother of what we really want an ebook reader to be.

Will it be Sony’s new book? The touch screen gets it closer. But I suspect the best Sony can really hope for, analogically, is an early Palm Pilot.