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The Amazon Kindle reader has been instrumental in the development of the e-book reader and e-book market. The original Kindle launched in November of 2007. The Kindle 2.0 was released in February of 2009 and the large format Kindle DX followed in the summer of the same year.
With a market share of 60% of all e-book readers sold in the USA, the Kindle readers dominated the market. Sony trailed in second place with a still respectable 35% share. Needless to say, other electronics manufacturers quickly saw the potential in the nascent e-book reader market and either developed or updated their own readers.
Manufacturers like Bookeen, Plastic Logic, Sony and Barnes and Noble worked hard to get their share of the rapidly developing market, but the dominance of the Kindle seemed pretty well established, if not unassailable. It was only when Apple launched their iPad that the Kindle faced any credible competition – despite the fact that the two devices were very different and, you would think, aimed at different target markets.
Differences in the devices and their intended applications notwithstanding, e-book reader prices have tumbled since the launch of the iPad. You can now pick up the Kindle 2.0 for just $ 189 – a huge reduction over the launch price of $ 359 – and a significant drop from the pre-iPad price of $ 259. The newly upgraded Kindle DX can be yours for just $ 379, down from $ 489. Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader is now on sale at just $ 199.
Whilst the price of e-book readers may be falling, the same cannot be said about the price of the e-books which these devices are used to read. Again, Apple had a hand in this. Apple had, in advance of the launch of the iPad, set up their own book store and negotiated a pricing deal with the major publishing houses which basically allowed them to fix the price of their e-book editions at whatever level they wished. The only rider being that they could not offer the same e-book version at a lower price on any other platform. This effectively put paid to Amazon’s policy of pricing e-books at $ 9.99 or lower and was very popular amongst the publishing companies.
Amazon may have had to abandon their low e-book price policy – but that wasn’t necessarily a disaster for them. Considering the way that Amazon have made it possible to read Kindle books on such a wide variety of different devices – you can use the PC, the Mac, the iPod Touch, the iPhone, the iPad, your Blackberry and any device which runs Android to read Kindle books right now (and no doubt there will be further additions in future) – it must be obvious that Amazon are more interested in book sales than hardware sales. The latest downward price movement for e-book readers and simultaneous price increase for e-books means that they can now sell the hardware for less and make their profit by selling e-books over the life of the hardware. The same will apply for Barnes and Noble and Apple themselves of course.
It may be that the future pricing of e-book readers and e-books will tend to favor such companies over manufacturers who are involved only in hardware production. Looking at the number of different devices which Kindle books can be read on, you would have to suspect that, whether or not the iPad becomes the reader of choice for many users, Amazon will continue to have a huge say in the future of books and e-books for the foreseeable future.
Check out the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.
iPad and other gadgets drain Asia of electronic components
TAIPEI – The launch this year of must-have gadgets such as the iPad, the iPhone 4 and a host of other smartphones, tablet computers and 3D television is draining the Asian market dry of electronic components.
Read more on Channel NewsAsia
