The Kindle Delivers For Amazon

Sometime towards the end of the year, the Amazon management team will get together to cast their eyes over 2009's performance. They will, in all probability, be very content - it has been an excellent year for Amazon. A lot of the credit for that must be given to the Amazon Kindle e-book reader - which is now Amazon's top selling product.

Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February of 2009. It was widely regarded as a big step in the right direction. Amazon had clearly paid close attention to customer feedback regarding the original Kindle, released in 2007. Wireless connectivity and the huge choice of Kindle books remained and faster pages changes, longer battery life and increased storage capacity were among the improvements which were introduced.

Best selling author, Stephen King wrote a special novella to mark the launch and the Kindle 2 rapidly became the "must have" gadget amid a blaze of publicity.

Amazon followed up, just a few months later in June, with the release of the Kindle DX. The large DX screen made it ideal for readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks. Surprisingly, it was the traditional world of academic publishing which generated a lot of publicity for the new 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.

Amazon entered into partnership agreements with a number of colleges and universities and also benefited from publicity thanks to political bodies such as the State of California and the New Democratic Leadership Council - both of whom advocated the fiscal and educational benefits achievable by the use of electronic textbooks and e-book readers.

Things were certainly looking good for Amazon - but there were some indications of trouble ahead. Having watched Amazon develop the e-book reader market, other manufacturers, quite naturally, decided to go after their share of this new and developing sector. The list of competitors, including such names as Apple, Sony, Barnes and Noble and Microsoft, all had their own e-book readers under development, with many of them scheduled for release in the near future.

It's a compliment to Amazon - albeit a backhanded one - that virtually every e-book reader in development which displays any potential is instantly named the "Kindle Killer". However, at the moment, and in spite of all the time and money spent on development by their competitors, Amazon is still, very much, the only show in town. The Nook reader by Barnes and Noble and Sony's Daily Edition reader - two of the most eagerly awaited new readers - have both had their launch dates postponed. As a matter of fact, it seems ever more probable that the most likely source of the Kindle Killer could very well be Amazon itself. The Kindle 4 seems to be the biggest threat to the Kindle 2 and the DX. Will Amazon release this in 2010?

Discover the Amazon Kindle reader and learn how to make it pay for itself by using free Kindle ebooks.