Amazon And Apple Have A Stranglehold Of The E-Book Market
E-book readers have been quite the hot gadget for a fair while now. The market for e-book readers really took off in 2009, and one of the most important influences on this was the launch of Amazon's Kindle.0 in February of that year. Amazon followed up with the launch of the large format Kindle DX in the summer of 2009 and, in the second half of the year, manufacturers of personal electronics were lining up to release their own e-book readers and secure a share of the emerging market. The fact that practically every new reader which displayed any potential was immediately christened the “Kindle Killer” should give some idea of just how influential Amazon was to the market's development. The Kindle reader was, without a doubt, the industry standard that had to be equalled and then beaten.
However, there was no sign of any reader which was about to knock the Kindle off the number one spot. Until the release of the Apple iPad - a completely different type of device - there really was no credible threat to the Kindle. Even then, the death of the Kindle as a result of consumers turning to the iPad just doesn’t seem to have materialised. Very rapidly following the release of the newly upgraded third generation Kindle in August 2010, Amazon had sold out of the devices and prospective customers were faced with a wait of several weeks before their new readers could be shipped.
Of course, the fact that the latest upgrades were accompanied by a further price cut might go some way to explaining the resurgence in the popularity of the Kindle. Amazon’s new Wi-Fi only Kindle was priced at just $ 139. Considering that the Kindle 2.0 launch price was $ 359 in February of 2009, that’s a hefty price reduction. It positions the Kindle – and e-book readers in general – considerably nearer to the sub $ 100 impulse buying zone for electronic gadgets. Whether this was prompted by the appearance of the iPad on the scene is probably a moot point. Not only would the price reduction would have happened anyway, but there is still a lot of room for downward price adjustment – and probably in the not too distant future.
Amazon and Apple may be enjoying a good deal of success, but the same cannot be said for other e-book reader manufacturers. A number of planned e-book readers have either been delayed or cancelled all together. Plastic Logic's Que reader is pretty much dead. Dutch company Irex, a previously well established business, has gone bankrupt after disappointing US sales of their Irex reader. The Skiff reader, from Sprint and Hearst has been cancelled.
Could we be heading towards a strongly polarised market in which Amazon dominate the low cost “pure” e-book reader sector and Apple clean up in the pricier tablet computer that also serves as an e-book reader market? There is a massive difference in the retail prices of the Kindle and even the entry level iPad. Is there room between the two devices, in terms of both price and specification levels, for other players to enter the market?
Amazon recently advised that sales figures for Kindle books have overtaken the sales of hard cover books. It seems highly probable that e-book sales will catch up with and eventually overtake paperback sales - and probably in the not too distant future. It seems certain that e-books are going to be an important part in the future of reading, but just what type of device will you use to read them on?
However, there was no sign of any reader which was about to knock the Kindle off the number one spot. Until the release of the Apple iPad - a completely different type of device - there really was no credible threat to the Kindle. Even then, the death of the Kindle as a result of consumers turning to the iPad just doesn’t seem to have materialised. Very rapidly following the release of the newly upgraded third generation Kindle in August 2010, Amazon had sold out of the devices and prospective customers were faced with a wait of several weeks before their new readers could be shipped.
Of course, the fact that the latest upgrades were accompanied by a further price cut might go some way to explaining the resurgence in the popularity of the Kindle. Amazon’s new Wi-Fi only Kindle was priced at just $ 139. Considering that the Kindle 2.0 launch price was $ 359 in February of 2009, that’s a hefty price reduction. It positions the Kindle – and e-book readers in general – considerably nearer to the sub $ 100 impulse buying zone for electronic gadgets. Whether this was prompted by the appearance of the iPad on the scene is probably a moot point. Not only would the price reduction would have happened anyway, but there is still a lot of room for downward price adjustment – and probably in the not too distant future.
Amazon and Apple may be enjoying a good deal of success, but the same cannot be said for other e-book reader manufacturers. A number of planned e-book readers have either been delayed or cancelled all together. Plastic Logic's Que reader is pretty much dead. Dutch company Irex, a previously well established business, has gone bankrupt after disappointing US sales of their Irex reader. The Skiff reader, from Sprint and Hearst has been cancelled.
Could we be heading towards a strongly polarised market in which Amazon dominate the low cost “pure” e-book reader sector and Apple clean up in the pricier tablet computer that also serves as an e-book reader market? There is a massive difference in the retail prices of the Kindle and even the entry level iPad. Is there room between the two devices, in terms of both price and specification levels, for other players to enter the market?
Amazon recently advised that sales figures for Kindle books have overtaken the sales of hard cover books. It seems highly probable that e-book sales will catch up with and eventually overtake paperback sales - and probably in the not too distant future. It seems certain that e-books are going to be an important part in the future of reading, but just what type of device will you use to read them on?
