The Kindle reader has been a fantastic product for Amazon since it was first released in November of 2007. Amazon’s strong association with both electronics and books made the Kindle the ideal product for them and, after an upgrade to the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009, followed by the launch of the large format DX model in the summer of the same year, it went on to become the number one selling product on the Amazon site.
Over the festive period of 2009, the Kindle became Amazon’s most gifted product ever. On Christmas day of 2009, Amazon sold more Kindle books than physical volumes for the first time ever. Admittedly this was probably due to people who had received a Kindle as a Christmas gift testing it out by downloading a Kindle book or two – but it was a landmark event for Amazon and the Kindle nonetheless.
Amazon did seem to be a slightly reluctant manufacturer on occasions however. They seemed to bend over backwards to ensure that Kindle books could be read by people who didn’t have Kindles. At the moment, Amazon has released free Kindle “Apps” for a wide variety of different devices – many of which would be viewed as competitors of the Kindle. These include the PC, the Apple Mac, the Blackberry, the iPod Touch, the iPhone, the iPad and any device running Android. Amazon looked to be their own competition at times.
However, with the release of the Apple iPad, the method in Amazon’s apparent madness became clear. The launch of the iPad produced a downward trend in the prices of e-book readers as Apple fans rushed to get their hands on the new iPad. On the other hand, e-book prices started to edge upwards.
This was chiefly due to a deal struck between Apple and the major publishing houses. Apple agreed to let publishers set the price for their e-book editions at whatever level they liked, as long as they didn’t offer the e-book at a lower price on any other reader. Amazon’s policy of selling all e-books for $ 9.99 or less was in tatters. At first glance it looked as if the iPad was to be Amazon’s nemesis, both in terms of Kindle reader hardware and e-book sales.
However, a more detailed analysis of the situation shows that Amazon’s decision to release Kindle apps for just about every major device going was a stroke of genius on their part. Each App acts as an additional outlet for the sale of Kindle books – and given that e-book prices are rising, Amazon can afford to sell their Kindle hardware at a lower price secure in the knowledge that they will make a profit by selling Kindle books over the lifetime of the reader. If the iPad were to totally decimate the Kindle sales figures – an improbable scenario – Kindle books would continue to sell. No doubt, if another tablet computer or super duper reader launched tomorrow there would be “an App for that” within a couple of weeks. Amazon seem to know what they’re doing after all.
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.
Tags: books, Computers, computing, e-books, ebooks, electronics, gadgets, mobile computing, reading, technology, Uncategorized