Will 2010 See The Release Of The Amazon Kindle 4?
March 9, 2010
It’s been a big year for e-book readers – chiefly due to the efforts of Amazon. Amazon debuted the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an improved and enhanced version of the original Kindle which was launched in November 2007.
In June of 2009, Amazon followed up with the Kindle DX, which was a large format version of the Kindle 2. It was specifically aimed at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks – and it caused quite a commotion.
The possibilities for academic use – from interactive textbooks to continually updated texts, and not overlooking the opportunity for academic bodies to save a lot of money – attracted a lot of attention. As well as signing agreements with a number of colleges and universities, Amazon got a lot of free publicity from political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his role as Governor of California.
Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and innovation – helped by all the free publicity – the Amazon Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s best selling product.Right now, the Kindle has an impressive 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently unveiled an international version. The Kindle has now grown to be virtually synonymous with e-book readers.
It’s probably worth pointing out that Amazon were, in fact, a late entrant to the e-book reader market. The original e-book reader, the Franklin eBookman, hit the market in 1999 – ten years ago. The Sony PRS reader was launched in 2007, before the launch of the original Kindle.
Amazon might been late to market – but by combining smart, technical innovation and responsiveness to customer needs, Amazon has attained its current dominant position. The large choice of ebooks available for the Kindle on Amazon’s website and the wireless connectivity (with no monthly fee) were every bit as crucial to the Kindle’s success as were the technical aspects of the device.
However, now that Amazon has – almost single handedly – established the market, it seems that all the other consumer electronics manufacturers want their share. Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Barnes and Noble, iRex, Plastic Logic, Asus – the list continues – all have their own readers ready for release or in the late stages of development.
Wireless connectivity, presently one of Amazon’s strong selling points, will become normal and Barnes and Noble will offer users of their new Nook reader more than 1,000,000 titles to pick from. The new Sony Daily Edition reader will allow users to borrow books on loan from participating lending libraries. Meanwhile, there will most likely be a standard e-book format agreed in 2010, which will allow users to lend e-books to friends and family or transfer them over to other readers if they wish.
At the moment, many industry analysts are checking out the line up of new readers and trying to predict which of them is the Kindle Killer. However, Amazon has been pretty smart so far and they won’t give up their top position without a struggle. It took them under eighteen months following the release of the first Kindle to launch the hugely enhanced Kindle 2. The DX followed just a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has big plans for the future development of their Kindle family. Could it be that the Kindle killer will actually be the Kindle 4 and that we could see this sometime in the next twelve months?
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