Amazon Have A Great Year Due To The Kindle Ebook Reader
Towards the end of the year, when Amazon’s management team get together to review the company’s performance in 2009, they will have good reason to feel content – but not smug. It’s been a very good year for the internet retail giant – and a lot of the credit must go to the Amazon Kindle reader.
Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February of 2009. It was generally regarded as a big step forward. Amazon had clearly listened closely to customer feedback regarding the original Kindle, which debuted in 2007. Wireless connectivity and the vast collection of Kindle books remained and faster page turns, longer battery life and increased storage capacity were among the enhancements which were introduced.
Best selling author, Stephen King wrote a special novella to mark the launch and the Kindle 2 rapidly became the “must have” gadget amid a blaze of publicity.
Just a few months later, in June of 2009, Amazon unveiled the Kindle DX. This had a large display and was intended to cater for readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks. A little surprisingly perhaps, it was the conservative world of academic publishing that helped to gain the DX a lot of publicity.
The academic community very quickly realised the potential opportunities which the Kindle offered. Not only would it be very much easier to keep textbooks updated but interactive education – pop quizzes and tests for example – would be possible. Academic bodies would not only save money as a result of using electronic books, but they would be more environmentally friendly also – an important factor for such establishments who have both budgets and environmental targets to meet nowadays.
As well as agreeing partnerships with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon benefited from a lot of publicity created by political bodies such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – both of whom waxed lyrical on the educational potential of e-book readers in general and the Amazon Kindle in particular.
However, as rosy as things were looking for Amazon, there were signs that trouble was looming. Other manufacturers, having observed Amazon develop the e-book reader market, were now becoming aware of the huge potential of this fledgling sector. An impressive list of competitors, including companies like Apple, Microsoft, Barnes and Noble and Sony, wanted their share – and they all had their own readers in development.
In a way, it’s a huge compliment to Amazon that practically every ebook reader in development which shows the slightest promise is immediately given the title of the “Kindle Killer”. The problem is that, at this time, in spite of all the development work by the competition, Amazon is still the only game in town. Sony’s Daily Edition reader and the Nook from Barnes and Noble have both had their launch dates put back. In fact, it looks increasingly likely that the most probable source of the long awaited Kindle Killer might be Amazon itself. The Kindle 4 is the most likely challenger. Can we hope to see it sometime next year?
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| Published on February 28th, 2010 | | No Comments | | Posted by admin |