Amazon’s Kindle Reader Takes E-Books Mainstream
Bearing in mind the strong association that Amazon has with books and reading, it’s hardly surprising that the Kindle reader has proved itself to be an brilliant fit for the Amazon business model. E-book readers really took off in 2009. A lot of the credit for that must go to the Amazon Kindle, both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX generated a fantastic deal of publicity and were instrumental in bringing e-books to the attention of the public.
Right now, the Kindle is Amazon’s best selling manufactured goods. It enjoys a 60% share of the US e-book reader market – Sony are in second place with around 35% of the market. Both the Kindle 2 and DX models are now being sold in more than 100 countries around the world. There is a wide variety of new readers available on the market just now – from a number of different manufacturers. But, the Amazon Kindle is undoubtedly the current market leader.
It’s a backhanded compliment to Amazon that practically every new reader that shows any potential whatsoever is given the title of the “Kindle Killer”. This simply serves to confirm the fact that the Kindle has become the industry benchmark against which all other readers will be measured. Amazon, in response to increased competition levels, has already dropped the price of the Kindle 2 by $100 since it was launched in February 2009. There has been no adjustment to the price of the Kindle DX thus far. But, the launch of the Apple iPad at the end of March 2010 may mean that Amazon will wish to re-evaluate the pricing policy of the Kindle DX.
As well as developing the Kindle hardware and expanding into new markets, the choice of Kindle books available on the Amazon website continues to grow. At the moment there are more than 420,000 books to choose from, and this number is growing at an average rate of 500 titles every day.
Unlike their competition, who seem to be very all ears on developing e-book reader hardware, Amazon and advancing on a broad front. They are adjusting prices, issuing firmware updates for the existing Kindle, increasing the size of their market and constantly making further additions to the range of Kindle books available. In general, they are capitalising on their market leadership position and making the most of their strong link with books.
It will be fascinating to see what new developments are included when Amazon choose to release the next upgrade of the Kindle reader. This will give a very strong suggestion of the way that the e-book reader market is likely to develop in future. Different industry watchers are predicting various dates for the next Kindle bring up to date. Given that the Kindle 2 is now over a year ancient it is nearly certain that this will take place in 2010. Some time during the third quarter of the year seems to be the most widely anticipated timeslot at the moment.
Check outthe Amazon Kindle for yourself – and don’t forget to get a Kindle cover to protect your reader against minor knocks and bumps.
