| Will Amazon Kill The Kindle Itself? |
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| Electronics - Gadgets |
| Written by Andrew King |
| Sunday, 13 December 2009 09:30 |
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When the Amazon management team get together to review the company's performance in 2009, they will have good reason to feel content - but not smug. It's been a very good year for the internet retail giant - and a lot of the credit must go to the Amazon Kindle e-book reader.
When the Amazon management team get together to review the company's performance in 2009, they will have good reason to feel content - but not smug. It's been a very good year for the internet retail giant - and a lot of the credit must go to the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. The Kindle 2 was released in February 2009. It was widely considered to be a step in the right direction. Amazon had obviously made very good use of the customer feedback it received on the original Kindle, released in November 2007, to drive improvements. The huge choice of Kindle titles and wireless connectivity were retained and longer battery life, increased storage capacity and faster page turns were among the improvements which were incorporated. The launch of the Kindle 2 was marked by the publication of a special novella - "Ur" - by bestselling novelist Stephen King. Amid a blaze of publicity, the Kindle 2 quickly became a "must have" gadget. Just a few months later, in June of 2009, Amazon released the Kindle DX. This had a large screen and was intended to cater for readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks. Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, it was the staid world of academic publishing that helped to gain the DX a lot of publicity. The academic community was quick to realise the potential benefits the Kindle offered. Not only would it be very much easier to update textbooks but interactive eduction - pop quizzes and tests for example - would be possible. Academic bodies would not only save money as a result of using paperless books, but they would be more environmentally friendly also - an important factor for such institutions who have both budgets and environmental targets to meet these days. As well as establishing partnerships with a number of colleges and universities, Amazon benefited from a lot of publicity generated by political bodies such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - both of whom waxed lyrical on the educational potential of e-book readers in general and the Amazon Kindle in particular. As bright as things were looking for Amazon, the first signs of trouble ahead were in evidence. Having seen Amazon developing the e-book reader market, other manufacturers were suddenly aware of the huge growth potential of this nascent sector. A long, and impressive, list of competitors, including companies like Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Barnes and Noble, were now chasing their share - and they all had e-book readers of their own in the development pipeline. It's a backhanded compliment to Amazon that practically every reader which shows any promise is immediately dubbed the "Kindle Killer". The fact of the matter is however, that despite all the money and time spent on development by the competition, Amazon currently remains the biggest kid in the playground - and by some way. The two biggest threats - Sony's Daily Edition reader and the Nook from Barnes and Noble - have both had their release dates moved back. It begins to look highly probable that Amazon itself could be the most likely producer of the Kindle Killer - the Kindle 4. Could we reasonably expect to see this sometime in 2010? About the Author: Discover the Amazon Kindle reader and find out how to make it pay for itself by downloading free Kindle ebooks. |