Business intelligence provider MicroStrategy has announced it will make its business reports and dashboards accessible through Amazon's Kindle DX reader, bringing one of the first business tools to a device that's been mostly defined by its ability to display electronic books.
The company already has an iPhone/iPod Touch app to allow mobile access to reports and the dashboard.
For iPhone users, the app is just one of thousands that users can tap into to customize how their phones double as work or personal computers. But for the Kindle DX, the MicroStrategy advances the idea that the US$489 device could have some legitimate business uses.
It's too early to say how much of an impact this will have on Kindle sales in the business world largely because it might not offer enough of a return on the investment, compared to the alternatives.
Plus, the Kindle’s colorless screen might be an issue. Its fine for black-ink-on-a-white-page book but spreadsheets, graphs and other business charts tend to use color.
Bottom line: the Kindle is more or less just a reader, a replacement for a folder full of documents. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a device that can be a reader, a phone, a gaming device, a music player and more.
This article was first published as a blog post on ZDNet.com.
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