Widespread Acceptance Of E-Books Thanks To The Amazon Kindle
Amazon has a very strong link with books and reading, so it’s no big surprise that the Kindle reader has turned out to be such a perfect fit for the Amazon business model. During 2009 e-book readers really went mainstream, and a great deal of the credit for that must go to the Amazon Kindle. Both the Kindle 2 and the larger DX model generated a huge amount of publicity and really helped to bring e-books into the mainstream consumer marketplace.
The Kindle has become Amazon’s top selling product. It has a 60% share of the USA’s e-book reader market – Sony are in second place with approximately a 35% market share. Both Kindle models are now on sale in more than 100 countries around the world. There are a large number of new e-book readers from different manufacturers available on the market just now. Nevertheless, the Amazon Kindle remains the market leader by some way.
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. However, 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.
In addition to developing the Kindle hardware and increasing the size of the available market, Amazon has also worked to ensure that the choice of Kindle books available continues to increase. Currently there are over 420,000 Kindle books to choose from and this number is being added to at an average rate of 500 new books daily.
In contrast to their competitors, who seem to be concentrating mainly on the development of e-book reader hardware, Amazon and making advances in a number of different areas. They are tweaking prices, releasing firmware updates for the existing Kindle models, growing their potential market and continually expanding the range of Kindle books on offer. In other words, not only are they capitalising on their dominant market position, but they are making the most of the strong association with books and reading.
So far Amazon have pretty much defined the e-book reader market. It will therefore be very interesting to see what features they decide to incorporate in the next version of the Kindle reader. This will give us all a good idea of the way that the e-book reader market is heading in future. There is no agreement amongst industry watchers as to when we can expect the next Kindle to appear. However, remembering the fact that the Kindle 2 is now just over 12 months old, it seems reasonable to assume that we will see a new, updated Kindle in 2010.
Discover the Amazon Kindle for yourself – and have a look at the wide range of Kindle accessories available to let you personalise and protect your reader.
Tags: books, e-books, ebooks, electronics, gadgets, hobbies, personal technology, reading, shopping