Amazon’s 60% Share Of The E-Book Reader Market Is Well Deserved
The Amazon Kindle e-book reader has proven itself to be the perfect product for Amazon. Considering that Amazon has such a strong association with both books and electronics the Kindle is a great fit for the Amazon business model.
During the course of 2009, e-book readers in general, and the Kindle in particular, were the hot “must have” gadgets of the year. It looks like sales will continue to grow at a very rapid rate throughout 2010. The market is still in its infancy and changing and developing rapidly.
Right now, the leader of the pack is the Kindle. It enjoys a 60% share of the American e-book reader market. Sony takes second place with a smaller, but nonetheless impressive, 35% share. There are now a whole host of competing manufacturers who have developed, or are actively marketing, their own readers in an attempt to get a share of what seems likely to be a very large and profitable market.
It’s a compliment to Amazon, albeit a slightly backhanded one, that every new e-book reader that hits the market and shows the slightest promise or potential is immediately given the title of “Kindle Killer”. Considering that the Kindle is now Amazon’s best selling product, it seems certain that Amazon will be very combative in attempting to fight off any challenges for the number one position.
In response to the increased level of competition in the market, Amazon dropped the Kindle 2.0′s price to $ 259 – it cost $ 359 when it launched in February 2009. The Kindle DX seems to have a little less competition right now. It’s price is unchanged from the $ 489 launch level. There have also been firmware updates – battery life has been extended and the Kindle 2.0 now has pdf support, among others.
Amazon has also now released both the Kindle 2.0 and the DX in more than 100 countries worldwide. In reality, Amazon could probably sell Kindles in the States as fast as it could manufacture them – but establishing a global presence is probably a very smart move in the long term.
As well as developing and refining the current Kindle and increasing the size of their potential market, Amazon is also growing the number of Kindle books which users can choose from on their website. Right now there are over 400,000 titles – this number is growing at the rate of 500 per day. Even considering the large number of competitors entering the market, Amazon is probably feeling quietly confident. Unlike some other companies, they are not concentrating solely on hardware development but making continuous improvements in a wide range of areas. Refinement of the existing Kindles, increased choice of books, price adjustment, increased market size – in general, capitalising fully on their market leadership position. When the Kindle 4 is released – sometime in 2010 surely – Amazon are going to establish their market domination even more firmly.
Discover the Amazon Kindle and learn how you can save money by downloading free Kindle books – right from the Amazon website.