Kindle Active Content is a fancy term Amazon uses to describe the games and apps designed to run e-readers. In 2010 Amazon introduced a section of their Kindle Store for games such as Chess, Hangman, and Jewels. It was designed to give people different things to do, other than reading books and newspapers on their e-readers. The problem was that Amazon never really promoted it and many users did not even know this platform existed. With the advent of the new Kindle Voyage and Basic Touch, Amazon has officially suspended support for Active Content.
Kindle Active Content did not have a dedicated section in the bookstore that is accessible on the e-readers. Instead, users had to find the web version and make purchases to send right to their devices. Hardly any of the apps were free and ranged in price from .99 to $5.99. You have to remember that back in 2010 many people did not own tablets and the ones that were out had abysmal specs.
Amazon seems to have abandoned Active Content, the last new app to be added to the platform was back in 2012. Obviously with the rise of smartphones and tablets, there really isn’t a dire need anymore to run apps on an e-reader.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.
