Amazon Kindle 4 – Is It The Real Kindle Killer?
Written by man on December 30th, 2009 in Other.
This has been an important year for e-book readers – thanks largely to the efforts of Amazon. Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an updated and enhanced version of the original Kindle which launched in November 2007.
In June of 2009, Amazon followed up with the Kindle DX, which was a large display version of the Kindle 2. It was quite deliberately aimed at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks – and it caused quite a commotion.
The possibilities for use in the academic environment – from interactive textbooks to constantly updated texts, and not overlooking the potential for academic bodies to save a lot of money – attracted plenty of attention. Over and above signing partnership agreements with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon gained plenty free publicity thanks to political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Governor.
Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and innovation – helped by all the free publicity – the Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s top selling product. Today, the Kindle accounts for a 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently launched an international version. The Kindle has, to all intents and purposes, become synonymous with e-book readers.
It’s probably worth remembering that Amazon were, in fact, a somewhat tardy entrant to the e-book reader market. The first dedicated e-book reader is widely considered to be the Franklin eBookman, which was released in 1999 – ten years ago. Sony’s PRS reader was launched in 2007, in advance of the launch of the original Kindle.
Amazon may not have been first on the high street – but by a combination of strong marketing, technical innovation and strong customer focus, Amazon has achieved its current dominant position. The vast choice of books available for the Kindle on Amazon’s website (360,000 titles at the last count and growing daily) and the wireless connectivity (with no monthly fee) were every bit as critical to the success of the Kindle as were the technical aspects of the device.
However, now that Amazon has – practically single handed – established the market, it seems that there are a whole bunch of other manufacturers who all want their share. Apple, Sony, Nicrosoft, Barnes and Noble, iRex, Plastic Logic, Asus – the list continues – all have their own readers due for release or in the late stages of the development cycle.
Amazon’s current unique selling point – wireless connectivity – will become the norm and Barnes and Noble will allow users of their new Nook reader the choice of over 1,000,000 titles. The new Sony Daily Edition reader will allow users to borrow books on loan from participating lending libraries. 2010 will probably see some industry standard e-book format agreed upon, which will allow users to lend e-books to family and friends or move them over to other readers if they wish.
A lot of business analysts are currently studying the line up of new readers and trying to identify which of them is the Kindle Killer. All the same, Amazon has shown plenty of business acumen to date, so don’t expect them to give up their top slot without a fight. It took them less than eighteen months after the release of the original Kindle to launch the next generation Kindle 2. The DX was released only a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has big plans for the further development of their e-book readers. Could it be that the Kindle killer will actually be the Kindle 4 and that could we see this sometime in 2010?
