Some say that, when the original Amazon Kindle was released in November 2007, there was no real competition for it. Certainly there were fewer readers around at that time, but such a statement may be just a little harsh on Sony’s PRS reader. In fact, the Kindle’s success was primarily due to the fact that it offered users significantly enhanced benefits which had not been available prior to its launch. Wireless connectivity, without any monthly fee, was a major selling point – as was the huge choice of Kindle ebooks on offer at the Amazon Kindle store.
In February of 2009, Amazon released the Kindle 2 which featured faster page turns, longer battery life, increased storage capacity and was lighter, slimmer and more cosmetically pleasing than the original Kindle. The Kindle DX followed in June 2009, and was basically a larger display version of the Kindle 2 – although it did feature native pdf handling and an accelerometer which auto rotated the screen view when the device was turned on its side.
In the relatively short time since the release of the two latest Kindles, there has been a huge increase in the level of competition in the ebook reader marketplace. Sony has a whole family of new readers on offer and Barnes and Noble have their own ebook reader – the Nook – on the market now. Other manufacturers, such as Microsoft, Apple and Plastic Logic, have readers in development. Many of these have features which outgun the Kindle. If Amazon’s success with the Kindle was ever truly due to lack of competition, then that is certainly no longer the case.
Amazon has certainly risen to the challenge. The Kindle 2 price has been reduced by $ 100 to $ 259 since the release date. There have been a number of firmware updates, including extended duration prior to entering screensaver mode, increased battery life, native pdf handling added for the Kindle 2 etc. Audio menus to help blind users are being rolled out and Kindle “Apps” for the PC and the iPhone have been introduced. In addition to this, Amazon released the Kindle 2 to the international market, where they no doubt hope to emulate the 60% market share that it claims in the USA today.
A lot of these changes do seem to have been a reaction to the competition’s activity, which is a little out of character for Amazon. It doesn’t seem likely that they have run out of ideas for the Kindle, which is now Amazon’s top selling product – so when can we expect to see the next major upgrade, and what might that involve?
Some kind of touch screen control facility must surely be at the top of the list of new features under consideration. A lot of the readers under development will feature this and it seems to be something which end users value. Many users would also put a color display on their wish list – but considering current technology, this might be a big ask. If Amazon were to have a color display in the Kindle 4, in a cost effective manner, it would be a huge coup for them.
Other, less hardware-centric, changes may also be in the offing. Many of Amazon’s competitors are adopting the ePub format for publishing ebooks. Currently, Amazon use a proprietary format which means that, aside from using apps with your PC or iPod, Kindle books can only be read on the Kindle reader. The ability to transfer ebooks from one reader to another, regardless of the readers brand, will be a consideration in future. People will want to be able to treat ebooks just as they do “real”, paper books – and that includes lending them to their friends and family when they’re done.
As to when the next generation Kindle, let’s call it the Kindle 4, might appear, it seems highly likely to be sometime in 2010. The market is developing and growing so rapidly that Amazon can’t afford to wait too long between upgrades. The Kindle has very rapidly become Amazon’s number one seller. They will simply not allow their competition to steal a march on them.
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