Kindle E-Book Reader Tops The Charts In 2009 Christmas Sales
Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was launched in February and the large format DX followed shortly afterwards in June. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s best selling product – even prior to the global launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.
By the end of 2009’s festive season, the Kindle had become Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. Of course, that was probably due to all those lucky people who had received a Kindle as a Christmas gift. In all probability, having opened their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, new owners would want to try out their new reader. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.
Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Even if some maintain that the method of realing this was just a little artificial then, when you think about it, that simply emphasises just what a good fit the Kindle is for Amazon’s business model.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s competition has been closely observing their success and taking steps to secure a share of the e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers in development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics multinationals. Microsoft, Apple, Sony and Samsung are just a small selection of the competitors who will be competing with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.
Many of the next generation readers will incorporate features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look out of date. Color displays, touch screen controls and an industry standard e-book format which will let users lend e-books to family and friends or even to borrow books from digital libraries are just some of the features which users can anticipate.
One thing’s for sure, Amazon will not sit on its hands while their competitors muscle in on the market which Amazon have done so much to develop. The present Kindles, although innovative only a few months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the near future. Amazon probably already has their next generation Kindle under development (the Kindle 4?) and, considering the level of drive and innovation that they have displayed thus far, Amazon will be probably be looking forward to even greater success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.
