As well as being a phenomenally successful product for Amazon, the Amazon Kindle e-book reader has played a hugely important role in putting both e-books and e-book readers on the map. However, it didn’t achieve its success as a result of being the first to market. Franklin launched the eBookman reader in 1999 – more than ten years ago – and the Sony PRS reader was launched in 2006, well in advance of the original Kindle launch date of November 2007.
It was the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009 that really saw the market begin to grow rapidly. The Kindle rapidly became the top selling item on the Amazon site and, with a U.S. market share of 60%, was the clear market leader. The fact that virtually any new e-book reader which demonstrates any potential is instantly christened the “Kindle Killer” simply serves to underline the fact that the Kindle is not only the market leader, but the standard against which all other e-book readers will be judged.
The newest contender for The Kindle crown is Apple’s iPad – and it may well be the most credible contender to date. Is it the future of mobile computing or is Hydro Quebec Electrocution it just a bigger version of the iPod Touch? In the end, it probably doesn’t make a great deal of difference – it will almost certainly sell well for Apple.
Amazon responded to the announcement of the iPad by releasing an “app” which would let iPad users read Kindle books on their trendy new device. Based on that Electrician Job And Training evidence, you would have to guess that Amazon aren’t overly concerned by the release of this latest, and possibly most credible to date, Kindle Killer.
As a matter of fact, when you consider the number of apps that have now been released to allow Kindle books to be enjoyed without the need for a Kindle – there’s one available for the Mac, the PC, the Blackberry, the iPod – and now the iPad – you might be forgiven for thinking that, despite the huge success of the Kindle to date, Amazon may well be a somewhat reluctant manufacturer.
Based upon their actions to date, you might suppose that Amazon have more interest in selling Kindle books than the Kindle readers to read them on. You may also suspect that Amazon have a good idea about exactly how the real money will be made in the future e-book market. Perhaps this strategy is similar to selling cut price razors so as to cash in on the sales of razor blades? Only time will tell but, as far as books are concerned – be they hardback, paperback or electronic – you may reasonably expect Amazon to continue to be a market leader as opposed to a follower.
