Can Anybody Catch The Kindle Now?
The biggest book seller on the face of the planet driving the revival of books and utilising its own in-house, custom made, technology in the process? It almost sounds too good to be true - and that may well be exactly how the Amazon marketing team feel when they look back at the Amazon Kindle reader’s short, but hugely successful career to date. The Kindle is absolutely the ideal device for Amazon, with its strong public image in the fields of both books and electronics, to market.
In just the same manner that digital cameras and digital picture frames have been taking over from the old fashioned equivalent items, the future of reading seems likely to be digital. Right now, the e-reader is the hottest “must have” piece of personal electronic kit available on the market. Oprah Winfrey was an early adopter. As long ago as 2008 she pronounced that the Kindle reader was her “new favorite gadget” - and you can be sure that her huge audience was paying attention. The Amazon marketing men must have been over the moon.
Amazon got yet further great publicity during the launch of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009. Novelist Stephen King wrote a special Kindle themed novella - “Ur” - to commemorate the occasion. The world’s bestselling author, the world’s largest book seller and the world’s hottest new gadget all came together to produce one massive publicity event. It’s hardly surprising that the Kindle is selling so well is it?
There are plenty of competitors now jumping on the bandwagon and launching their own e-book readers. However, Amazon and Sony are dominating the market right now, with a 60% and 35% share of the American e-book reader market respectively. They are the two companies who have done most to develop the market - Sony released their first PRS reader in 2006, Amazon’s first Kindle launched in November 2007. Now they are reaping the rewards of their foresight and innovation and the rest are, quite frankly, playing catch up.
The number of Kindle books available on the Amazon site is enormous. At the moment there are in excess of 400,000 - with an average of 500 new books being added daily. Sony have teamed up with Google so that their customers can access Google’s huge online book collection. Electronic books tend to be cheaper than the printed equivalent. They don’t use paper, ink or bindings - and they don’t need to be delivered by truck or by mail. If you like, you can download the first sample of any Kindle book as a free sample - so that you can see if you like it before you buy.
Every year, the newspaper, magazine and book sector in the USA requires the felling of 125 million trees just to supply the paper needed. Don’t forget the ink, chemicals and energy used in the production process - plus the emissions generated during shipping.
There’s not much doubt about it, e-book readers and e-books represent the future of reading. Amazon and Sony have both secured leadership positions in the present market - but the influence of additional competitors will tend to produce a downward pressure on prices. When all’s said and done, it will be the end user who benefits from reduced pricing, a more environmentally friendly product and a slicker purchase and delivery methodology.