Will Next Year See The Release Of The Amazon Kindle 4?
This has been a big year for e-book readers – largely due to the efforts of Amazon. Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an updated and enhanced edition of the original Kindle which was launched in November 2007.
In June of 2009, Amazon followed up with the Kindle DX, which was a large format version of the Kindle 2. It was specifically targeted at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks – and it caused quite a buzz.
The potential for academic use – from interactive textbooks to continually updated texts, and not forgetting the opportunity for academic bodies to save a lot of money – attracted a lot of attention. As well as signing agreements with a number of colleges and universities, Amazon gained a lot of free publicity from political bodies such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and also Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his capacity as Governor of California.
Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and innovation – assisted by all the free publicity – the Amazon Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s best selling product.Right now, the Kindle has an amazing 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently launched an international edition. The Kindle has now grown to be virtually a byword for e-book readers.
It’s probably worth noting that Amazon were, in fact, a late entrant to the e-book reader market. The first e-book reader, the Franklin eBookman, hit the market in 1999 – ten years ago. The Sony PRS reader was launched in 2007, prior to the launch of the original Kindle.
Amazon may not have been first to market – but by a combination of marketing, technical innovation and responsiveness to customer needs, Amazon has reached its present dominant position. The vast choice of ebooks available for the Kindle on Amazon’s website and the wireless connectivity (with no monthly fee) were every bit as crucial to the Kindle’s success as were the technical features of the device.
However, now that Amazon has – almost single handedly – developed the market, it seems that every man and his dog want their share. Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Barnes and Noble, iRex, Plastic Logic, Asus – the list goes on – all have their own devices set for launch or in the final stages of development.
Wireless connectivity, currently one of Amazon’s strong selling points, will become normal and Barnes and Noble will offer users of their new Nook reader over 1,000,000 titles to pick from. The new Sony Daily Edition reader will permit users to borrow books on loan from participating lending libraries. Meanwhile, there will most likely be a standard e-book format agreed next year, which will allow users to lend e-books to family and friends or port them across to other readers if they wish.
At the moment, many industry insiders are eyeing the line up of new readers and trying to guess which of them is the Kindle Killer. However, Amazon has been very astute thus far and they won’t give up their top position without a struggle. It took them under eighteen months following the launch of the first Kindle to launch the much enhanced Kindle 2. The DX followed just a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has some ideas for the future development of their Kindle family. Could it be that the Kindle killer will turn out to be the Kindle 4 and that we could see this sometime in the next twelve months?