Business intelligence comes to Kindle. Will companies care?

Business Intelligence provider MicroStrategy said today that 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 $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. I tend to be a bit of a pessimist about the Kindle as a business document reader, largely because I don't think it offers enough of a return on the investment, compared to the alternatives.

Plus, I also have issues with the Kindle's colorless screen. That's all fine for black-ink-on-a-white-page book but spreadsheets, graphs and other business charts tend to use color. I know it's not that huge of a deal but, I can't help it. It's an issue for me.

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.

Also see: Amazon Kindle's $489 price tag makes iPod Touch a better buy