The recently upgraded third generation Kindle readers is flying off Amazon’s shelves at the moment. An upgrade – which incorporates a new 50% higher contrast e-ink technology display, smaller and lighter casing, faster page turns and a doubling of memory to 4GB – accompanied by a price reduction and the launch of a new Wi-Fi only entry level model, has seen demand for the Kindle reader take off.
At the moment, the third generation Kindles are sold out and potential customers face a wait of three to four weeks before any new ones start shipping. Kindle books are now selling more than conventional hard cover editions on a regular basis. It looks to be no more than a matter of time before e-books start to outsell paperbacks.
Amazon has also opened a dedicated UK Kindle store so that UK customers don’t need to have their Kindles shipped across the Atlantic and can pay for their Kindle purchases in sterling rather than dollars. It seems reasonable to assume that similar “local” Kindle stores will be opened for other Amazon international websites such as France, Germany etc. in the not too distant future.
In short, everything in the garden is pretty rosy for Amazon right now. Reports of the Kindle’s demise at the hands of Apple’s iPad seem to be premature and largely inaccurate. Amazon’s policy of releasing free “apps” to allow Kindle books to be read on a variety of different devices looks to be paying dividends. So, bearing in mind the enormous success that they have achieved with their first manufactured product, it’s maybe no great surprise that Amazon is reported to be considering developing prototypes for consumer gadgets over and above the Kindle in their Lab 126 research facility.
Whilst Amazon has remained silent on the subject, speculation that they may be thinking about music/movie players and possibly some kind of mobile phone is rife. However, industry watchers suggest that, if Amazon wanted to enter the market with another gadget, then they would need to ensure that they add value rather than simply releasing another piece of personal electronic tech onto the market.
Much of the success of the Kindle reader must be attributed to Amazon’s strong link with books and reading in general. The great selection of Kindle books available – in excess of 630,000 and growing every day – and the fact that these can be read on so many other devices has been a real feather in Amazon’s cap. Any new gadget that Amazon decided to launch would probably need some similar type of support in order to achieve anything approaching the level of success enjoyed by the Kindle.
