Why The Kindle Is Such a Good Fit For Amazon’s Business
Considering the very strong link that Amazon have with books and reading it’s no surprise that the Amazon Kindle reader has proved itself to be a very good fit for Amazon’s business model. During 2009, the market for e-book readers really took off. The Amazon Kindle must be given the credit for much of that, both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX, generated a great deal of publicity and helped to develop the e-book market.
Currently, the Kindle is Amazon’s number one selling product. It enjoys a 60% share of the US e-book reader market – Sony takes second place with 35%. Both the Kindle models are now on sale in more than 100 countries around the world. Today, there are many different e-book readers available on the market from a number of different suppliers apart from Amazon. However, the Kindle is very definitely the current market leader.
In a way, it’s a compliment to Amazon that every new reader which shows any promise whatsoever is immediately christened the “Kindle killer”. Amazon’s response to the increased level of competition has been to reduce the price of the Kindle 2 from $359 to $259. The price of the DX model is currently and changed, but the recent launch of the Apple iPad may mean that Amazon need to consider reviewing this price in the near future also.
As well as developing the Kindle hardware and expanding into new markets, the choice of Kindle books available on the Amazon website continues to grow. Currently, there are over 420,000 Kindle books to choose from – an average of 500 new titles are added every day.
Unlike their competition, who seem to be very focused on developing e-book reader hardware, Amazon and advancing on a broad front. They are modifying prices, updating the current Kindle using firmware releases, selling to a larger market and constantly increasing the selection of Kindle books on offer. In general, the capitalising on their market leadership position and making the most of their strong link with books.
It will be very interesting to note what enhancements Amazon decides to incorporate in the next iteration of the Kindle. This will give a very strong indication of the way that the e-book reader market is likely to develop in future. Different industry watchers are predicting various dates for the next Kindle update. Considering that the Kindle 2 is no more than a year old, so almost certainly take place during 2010. The third quarter of the year is the most widely forecast launch time according to many business insiders.