Will The Real Kindle Killer Please Step Forward?
Sunday, 06 December 2009 10:03 | 
Written by Andrew King |
Like many other companies, Amazon will probably have some gathering of its management team towards the end of the year in order to review the company's 2009 performance. They will have plenty of reason to feel content. It's been a great year for Amazon - and a good deal of the credit for that must be attributed to the Kindle e-book reader.
Like many other companies, Amazon will probably have some gathering of its management team towards the end of the year in order to review the company's 2009 performance. They will have plenty of reason to feel content. It's been a great year for Amazon - and a good deal of the credit for that must be attributed to the Kindle e-book reader.
The Kindle 2 was released in February 2009. It was widely considered to be a step in the right direction. Amazon had obviously made very good use of the customer feedback it received on the original Kindle, released in November 2007, to drive improvements. The huge choice of Kindle titles and wireless connectivity were retained and longer battery life, increased storage capacity and faster page turns were among the improvements which were incorporated.
The launch of the Kindle 2 was marked by the publication of a special novella - "Ur" - by bestselling novelist Stephen King. Amid a blaze of publicity, the Kindle 2 quickly became a "must have" gadget.
Only a few months later, the Kindle DX was released by Amazon. This had a big screen which was intended to satisfy the needs of readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks. A little surprisingly, it was the normally conservative world of academic publishing that attracted a lot of free publicity for the DX.
Academics very quickly realised the potential benefits offered by the Kindle. It would be very much easier to keep academic texts current and up to date and interactive education possibilities - such as pop quizzes and electronic testing - would be available. Avoiding the use of paper based books would not only save money but would reduce the environmental impact of colleges - two important aspects for such institutions in our present day climate.
In addition to entering into partnerships with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon profited from much publicity generated by political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council (who number Hilary Clinton among their members) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as Governor of the State of California. Both of these political bodies held forth on the educational and fiscal benefits which could be achieved by the use of e-book readers in general and the Kindle in particular.
As bright as things were looking for Amazon, the first signs of trouble ahead were in evidence. Having seen Amazon developing the e-book reader market, other manufacturers were suddenly aware of the huge growth potential of this nascent sector. A long, and impressive, list of competitors, including companies like Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Barnes and Noble, were now chasing their share - and they all had e-book readers of their own in the development pipeline.
It's a backhanded compliment to Amazon that practically every reader which shows any promise is immediately dubbed the "Kindle Killer". The fact of the matter is however, that despite all the money and time spent on development by the competition, Amazon currently remains the biggest kid in the playground - and by some way. The two biggest threats - Sony's Daily Edition reader and the Nook from Barnes and Noble - have both had their release dates moved back. It begins to look highly probable that Amazon itself could be the most likely producer of the Kindle Killer - the Kindle 4. Could we reasonably expect to see this sometime in 2010?
Like many other companies, Amazon will probably have some gathering of its management team towards the end of the year in order to review the company's 2009 performance. They will have plenty of reason to feel content. It's been a great year for Amazon - and a good deal of the credit for that must be attributed to the Kindle e-book reader.
The Kindle 2 was released in February 2009. It was widely considered to be a step in the right direction. Amazon had obviously made very good use of the customer feedback it received on the original Kindle, released in November 2007, to drive improvements. The huge choice of Kindle titles and wireless connectivity were retained and longer battery life, increased storage capacity and faster page turns were among the improvements which were incorporated.
The launch of the Kindle 2 was marked by the publication of a special novella - "Ur" - by bestselling novelist Stephen King. Amid a blaze of publicity, the Kindle 2 quickly became a "must have" gadget.
Only a few months later, the Kindle DX was released by Amazon. This had a big screen which was intended to satisfy the needs of readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks. A little surprisingly, it was the normally conservative world of academic publishing that attracted a lot of free publicity for the DX.
Academics very quickly realised the potential benefits offered by the Kindle. It would be very much easier to keep academic texts current and up to date and interactive education possibilities - such as pop quizzes and electronic testing - would be available. Avoiding the use of paper based books would not only save money but would reduce the environmental impact of colleges - two important aspects for such institutions in our present day climate.
In addition to entering into partnerships with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon profited from much publicity generated by political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council (who number Hilary Clinton among their members) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as Governor of the State of California. Both of these political bodies held forth on the educational and fiscal benefits which could be achieved by the use of e-book readers in general and the Kindle in particular.
As bright as things were looking for Amazon, the first signs of trouble ahead were in evidence. Having seen Amazon developing the e-book reader market, other manufacturers were suddenly aware of the huge growth potential of this nascent sector. A long, and impressive, list of competitors, including companies like Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Barnes and Noble, were now chasing their share - and they all had e-book readers of their own in the development pipeline.
It's a backhanded compliment to Amazon that practically every reader which shows any promise is immediately dubbed the "Kindle Killer". The fact of the matter is however, that despite all the money and time spent on development by the competition, Amazon currently remains the biggest kid in the playground - and by some way. The two biggest threats - Sony's Daily Edition reader and the Nook from Barnes and Noble - have both had their release dates moved back. It begins to look highly probable that Amazon itself could be the most likely producer of the Kindle Killer - the Kindle 4. Could we reasonably expect to see this sometime in 2010?
About the Author:
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle reader and discover how to make it pay for itself by downloading free Kindle ebooks.