Finally, the Kindle development you’ve been waiting for is here at long last. Color e-ink? No, better. Quicker navigation? What? Who needs that? Native PDF support? Get off my lawn!

No, Tuesday saw the debut of the highly anticipated Kindle for PC beta!

[*crickets*]

I know, I don’t get it either. You can check it out for free by heading on over to the Kindle for PC page and downloading the application.

“Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX,” said Ian Freed, VP for the Kindle unit of Amazon, in a statement. “Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to access a huge selection from the Kindle Store and read the most popular books of today even if they don’t yet have a Kindle.”

Since it’s still in beta, the features are understandably limited, but functional. You can change text size, change pages, change page size, access the table of contents, and browse from your list of titles. Curiously missing from this release is the ability to create notes (though you can access notes made from your Kindle), access the dictionary, and search the text, though those are features they’ve discussed adding in the future.

I was also a little miffed that they left out the ability to use your non-Kindle files in the application. As we’ve shown you before, getting public domain titles for your Kindle is a snap. (I’m reading the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes myself, it’s quite good!) And while there are no shortage of applications out there that will let you read plain text or .mobi files, it doesn’t make sense that they should have to remain separate from their Amazon-bought brethren.

One of the features they were boasting of was the whispersync technology, which is supposed to save your bookmarks across devices. I was disappointed to find that at least two of my titles were bookmarked in completely difference spots than on my Kindle. I had to manually go in and sync my Kindle to get the latest bookmarks and notes on my PC.

Features and technology aside, I still think the unanswered question is: who really wanted this? The whole point of a Kindle, as I understood it, was that it was a dedicated device that was portable like a book and read like a book. Reading a file on a computer screen doesn’t really have the same effect as e-ink, and unless you’re rocking a netbook, there’s no portability involved. I’ll confess that the prospect of covertly sneaking in reading while at work has crossed my mind, and having the ability to access your notes could be extremely handy for students, but overall it’s just not something I think people needed.

The saving grace, I suppose, is that they’re still calling it a beta. The unwritten rule of software is that you’re allowed to suck, as long as you’re in beta. Amazon still has time to iron out the kinks, and I trust that they will.

Kindle for the PC is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Amazon promises a Mac version soon.