At this point, it looks to me like Amazon is going to offer an Android device in the not-so-distant future. They're quite clearly following the Apple/iTunes/iPod strategy: "Get the software pieces out there and performing so integration with the final hardware is seamless and painless".
So the fact that it duplicates some parts of existing software doesn't much matter. What matters is whether it's a focused and refined first-party solution for that eventual device.
It simply isn't competing for the people who know about and downloaded and set up an account for Dropbox/Grooveshark/etc. It would be the built-in feature that's sitting there waiting for you, automatically integrated to your existing Amazon account and "Just Works".
Also, the small size seems (to me) to be a beta sort of limitation. I'd be surprised if the final hardware launch doesn't include an upgrade to 50 or more gig of space just for buying the hardware.
So, yes, it really is just a sort of Grooveshark/Dropbox/iTunes-Cloud-Sync sort of solution that doesn't knock anyone's socks off via the feature checklist. But if the integration with the final device is tight, I don't think that matters at all.
At this point, it looks to me like Amazon is going to offer an Android device in the not-so-distant future. They're quite clearly following the Apple/iTunes/iPod strategy: "Get the software pieces out there and performing so integration with the final hardware is seamless and painless".
So the fact that it duplicates some parts of existing software doesn't much matter. What matters is whether it's a focused and refined first-party solution for that eventual device.
It simply isn't competing for the people who know about and downloaded and set up an account for Dropbox/Grooveshark/etc. It would be the built-in feature that's sitting there waiting for you, automatically integrated to your existing Amazon account and "Just Works".
Also, the small size seems (to me) to be a beta sort of limitation. I'd be surprised if the final hardware launch doesn't include an upgrade to 50 or more gig of space just for buying the hardware.
So, yes, it really is just a sort of Grooveshark/Dropbox/iTunes-Cloud-Sync sort of solution that doesn't knock anyone's socks off via the feature checklist. But if the integration with the final device is tight, I don't think that matters at all.