The Amazon Kindle seems to be the current hot “must have” gadget available on the market appropriate now. It appears quite much as if the ebook reader is an notion whose time has come – as well as the Amazon Kindle is undoubtedly the most effective example of such a device available on the market correct now. It really is also, and let’s make no bones about it here, cool.
The Kindle has been compared to the Apple iPod – which now has a kindle application that enables you to read kindle books on it – by numerous industry observers. Indeed, going correct back to the launch of the original Kindle in November of 2007, Steven Levy’s Newsweek cover article suggested that the Kindle was the “… iPod of reading”. Two and a half years down the line it seems that drawing parallels between the two devices may possibly go some way towards understanding the present phenomenal success of the Kindle – and perhaps even some insight into what may possibly happen inside the near future.
Amazon supremo Jeff Bezos is quoted as saying, again way back in 2007, that “This [the Kindle] is not a device, it’s a service.” – and that’s completely fundamental to understanding why the Kindle works so well in Amazon’s enterprise model. Some criticisms have been levied at the Kindle’s high price – it presently retails at $359 for the Kindle 2, slightly decreased from the original Kindle price of $399. The original iPod was priced at $399 when it was released – costs have fallen as the item was first accepted, and then passed via mainstream to practically ubiquitous. At the same time functionality has increased.
Apple is, and has been for some time now, synonymous with music downloads and has increased the accessible range of products to contain videos, games along with a host of applications for the iPod. In a comparable way, Amazon is strongly associated with books, making the kindle an ideal option of item for them. The recent announcement of the bigger Kindle DX is noteworthy, not purely since of the several technical enhancements that it offers, but since it improves Amazon’s capability to deliver newspapers, magazines and even academic textbooks to its consumers.
It could be wrong to discount the technical aspects of the Kindle series of readers completely of course, however it appears that, for Amazon, the technology is really a means to an end as opposed to the end itself. Actually, as far as e-book reader technologies goes, Amazon are fairly late to the party whenever you take into account that there have been contenders like the Franklin ebook (no longer being developed but still offered from some sources) kicking around since 1999, and Sony have had ebook readers for some time. There are numerous other people, some have already died a death others are soldiering on with out, presently at least, attracting anything like the volume of interest generated by the Kindle.
An additional key benefit enjoyed by Amazon at this time is the 3G wireless technologies used to allow Kindle users to download their ebooks in much less than a minute with out the use of a computer or an world wide web connection – and without being tied in to a monthly contract or having to pay a download fee. It is a great example of the way Amazon have used the technologies to present a perceived benefit for their clients.
No monthly connection fee and no download charges means that buyers do not feel tied in or committed to the Amazon service, an crucial factor contemplating the fairly high ticket price and also the current economic climate. Needless to say, whilst clients will likely be able to purchase ebooks elsewhere for use with their Kindle, it is still going to be a good deal less difficult for them to purchase from Amazon’s big, and ever expanding, selection of Kindle friendly books. Amazon are going to see a good deal of repeat organization – just as Apple do with their iTunes store.
Utilizing the iPod expertise to predict the Kindle’s prospective future, it appears unlikely that the Kindle will have everything its own way. As previously mentioned, you’ll find already a number of existing alternative ebook readers on the market – the Sony PRS is possibly the most significant player aside from the Kindle correct now, but there are other people. These will either enhance and offer strong competition for the Kindle or disappear from the marketplace.
Also worth considering is the reality that you will find quite a few new readers in development. Plastic Logic, has a Kindle DX sized reader in development which has been scheduled for release in 2010. Rumours abound about the release of an Apple tablet based pc, suggested to be aimed at the gap between an iPod Touch and a full blown MacBook. It would not be too fanciful to imagine that Apple may possibly expand their iStore to include ebooks just as they expanded it to include videos after the release of the iPhone and iPod Touch.
And it’s not just tougher competition based on improved reader technology that Amazon may possibly need to face. In March of 2009 Google and Sony announced that Google’s huge library of public domain e-books could be made offered for free on Sony’s reader. That’s a total of 600,000 titles and is a clear signal that the ebook reader marketplace going to be fiercely contested in future.
At the moment Amazon is sitting pretty. It has a significant number of ebooks in its library, it has the wireless technologies to supply fee free downloads and, most critical of all – the Kindle is cool. Whether or not or not it develops into a ubiquitous iPod kind item or not inside the face of what will likely be fierce competition only time will tell. Amazon have been far more than smart so far, so it appears likely that they’ll be a major player in this emerging marketplace for a lengthy time to come.
One thing seems certain, we will all have the choice to read books, magazines, newspapers and even textbooks using portable digital readers in the immediate future. As competition, volumes of scale and advancements in technologies combine to drive costs down this will grow to be an increasingly common selection for numerous, possibly even a majority of, readers. The way we read is about to change, possibly faster than you may possibly imagine.
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