The recently upgraded third generation Kindle readers is flying off Amazon's shelves at the moment. An upgrade - which includes a new display with 50% better contrast, lighter and smaller casing, quicker page turns and double the memory capacity - accompanied by a reduction in price and the introduction of an entry level Wi-Fi only model, has seen demand for the Kindle reader soar.
At the moment, the third generation Kindles are sold out and potential customers face a wait of three to four weeks before any new ones start shipping. Kindle books are now selling more than conventional hard cover editions on a regular basis. It can only be a matter of time before e-books begin to sell more than paperbacks.
Amazon has also launched a dedicated UK Kindle store so that UK customers don’t require to have their readers shipped across the Atlantic and can pay for their Kindle purchases in sterling rather than dollars. It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that similar “local” Kindle stores will be opened for other Amazon international websites such as France, Japan, Germany etc. in the future.
Currently, everything in the garden is rosy for Amazon. Predictions that the Kindle would be killed off as a result of the launch of the Apple iPad seem to be largely inaccurate. Amazon’s policy of releasing free “apps” to allow Kindle books to be read on a variety of different devices looks to be paying dividends. So, considering what a huge success they have had with their first manufactured product, it’s probably no surprise that Amazon is reported to be considering developing prototypes for consumer gadgets other than the Kindle in their Lab 126 research facility.
Amazon has made no comment on what they may, or may not, be developing, but it has been suggested that they may be looking at mobile phones and music and/or movie players. However, industry analysts suggest that, were Amazon to enter the market with another gadget, they would need to be sure that they were adding value rather than just releasing another piece of personal electronic tech onto the market.
A great deal of the success of the Kindle reader must be attributed to Amazon’s strong association with books and reading in general. The great selection of Kindle books on offer – in excess of 630,000 and increasing every day – and the fact that these can be read on so many other devices has been a real feather in Amazon’s cap. Any new gadget that Amazon decided to release would certainly need some similar type of support in order to achieve anything approaching the level of the Kindle's success.
