Why The Kindle Reader Is The Leader Of The Pack
The Amazon Kindle e-book readerhas clearly shown that it is the ideal product for Amazon. such a strong association with both electronics and books the Kindle fits in really well with Amazon’s business model.
Over the course of 2009, e-book readers as a whole, and the Kindle in particular, became the hot “must have” gadgets of the year. It’s predicted that sales will continue to grow at an almost exponential rate throughout 2010. The market is still in its infancy and is changing and developing rapidly.
Right now, the Kindle is way ahead of the chasing pack. It currently enjoys an impressive 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market. Sony takes the second place position with a creditable 35% market share. There is a long list of competitors who have now developed their own e-book readers in order to get a piece of the action in what is anticipated to be a large and lucrative market.
It’s a compliment to Amazon, albeit a slightly back-handed one, that practically every new e-book reader that displays and potential is instantly hailed as the “Kindle Killer”. However, bearing in mind that the Kindle is now Amazon’s top selling item, you can be sure that Amazon will fight hard to hang on to the lead position.
Amazon has responded to the increased competition by lowering the price of the Kindle 2.0 from its $ 359 launch level to $ 259. The price of the Kindle DX, which probably has a little less competition just at the moment, remains unchanged. There have also been firmware updates, including the addition of pdf support and extended battery life, among others.
Both the Kindle 2.0 and the DX are now on sale in over 100 countries around the world. In truth, Amazon could probably sell Kindles in the States as fast as it could manufacture them – but developing an international Kindle presence is probably a very smart move in the long term.
In addition to tweaking the Kindle reader itself and entering new markets, Amazon continues to expand the library of Kindle books available on its Kindle store. Right now there are in excess of 400,000 titles available – and this number is growing at an average rate of over 500 a day.
So, even although there are a huge number of manufacturers frantically developing e-book readers in order to break into the market, Amazon is probably quietly confident. Rather than just concentrating on hardware development, Amazon is advancing on a broad front. They are developing the existing Kindle, adjusting prices, expanding their market, expanding the selection of available books and generally capitalising on their market leadership position. Whenever they decide to launch the Kindle 4 – during the course of 2010 most likely – they will simply consolidate their leadership position even more.
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