Gifted Kindle E-Book Reader Produces Good Results For Amazon
Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was released in February and the DX followed in June. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s best selling product – even prior to the global launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.
During the 2009 festive season, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day 2009, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. That was probably due to those lucky people who had got a Kindle reader for Christmas. It seems likely that, having unwrapped their gift, happy new Kindle owners would want to test their new toy. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.
Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Whilst some may think that the way this was achieved was slightly artificial then perhaps that simply confirms the Kindle’s suitability for the Amazon way of doing business.
Needless to say, Amazon’s competitors have been enviously eyeing their success and taking steps to ensure that they secure a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers in development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics multinationals. Sony, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft are just a few of the competitors who will be slugging it out with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.
A lot of the next generation readers will have features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look somewhat dated. Color displays, touch screen controls and an industry standard e-book format which will let users lend e-books to family and friends or even to borrow books from digital libraries are just some of the features which users can anticipate.
Amazon will certainly not stand and watch whilst their competitors take over the market which Amazon has done so much to foster and encourage. The present Kindles, although innovative only a few months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the near future. Amazon is probably already working on their next generation Kindle (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon will be anticipating further success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.
