Amazon's Third Generation Kindle Goes From Strength To Strength

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by: krizyyquinthwarbler
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Word Count: 514
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 Time: 2:51 PM
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At the end of the 2010 festive season, when the sales returns are tallied up, there seems little doubt that the Kindle reader will have enjoyed another record breaking year. In spite of the premature rumors of the Kindle's imminent demise as a result of the release of the Apple iPad, Amazon's top selling ebook reader just seems to go from strength to strength.

Even without the introduction of a touch sensitive, the launch of the Kindle 3 in the autumn of 2010 widened the gap between the Kindle and the chasing pack even further. As well as a variety of technical enhancements, including a better contrast display, a lighter and smaller case and increased memory capacity, Amazon introduced a WiFi only entry level model.

Priced at just $ 139, the base model Kindle is less than a third of the cost of the entry level iPad. The 3G plus WiFi model sells for $ 189 - still a long way below the price of even the entry level iPad. The fact that there are no monthly download fees associated with the Kindle remains a big selling point of course.

Another big selling point of the Kindle has always been the huge selection of Kindle books available for download from Amazon's website. Currently there are over 750,000 Kindle books for sale on the Amazon Kindle store. In addition to this, there are a further 1.8 million books published prior to 1923 and which are now out of copyright - including many well known classics - which are available for free download.

Being "tied" to a particular brand of e-book reader is a concern which many prospective buyers seem to have. They worry that, having built up a library of a particular type of e-book, they may be unable to switch their books over should they wish to buy a different type of reader in the future.

This has been cleverly addressed by Amazon, who have released a variety of apps to allow Kindle books to be read on a range of different devices. There are currently Kindle apps available for the Mac, PC, the iPad, the iPhone, any device which runs the Android OS, the Blackberry smart phone and the latest generation of Windows phones. It's a smart move by Amazon. As well as overcoming any concerns regarding the transfer of e-books, each of these apps is effectively a retail outlet for Kindle books. It's estimated that around 20% of all Kindle books sales are the result of transactions conducted using non-Kindle devices. That's a percentage which will probably increase in future.

Rather than having been "killed" by the Apple iPad, or any other device, 2010 has seen the dominant position of the Kindle becoming even more firmly established. The fact that the only credible competition to the Kindle comes in the form of a tablet computer which costs more than three times as much as Amazon's reader tells a story in itself. It will be interesting to see what 2011 brings for the e-book reader market in general - and the Kindle in particular.

About the Author

Cast your eye over the Kindle reader.
It's the leading e-reader on sale right now.