The E-Book Reader Market Is About To Enter A New Phase

E-book readers and e-books have been hot topics for some time now. In 2009, the market for e-book readers rocketed and one of the most important driving factors was the release of the Amazon 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. It’s a clear indication of just how influential Amazon were – and remain – to the development of the market that almost every new reader announced was instantly christened the “Kindle Killer”. The Kindle reader was, undoubtedly, the industry standard that required to be equalled and subsequently beaten.

However, there was very little evidence of a reader which was going to knock the Kindle off its throne. It wasn’t until the launch of the Apple iPad – a very different device – that there was any serious threat to the Kindle’s dominance. Even then, the forecast of the Kindle’s death as consumers turned en masse to the iPad doesn’t seem to be in evidence. Following the launch of the newly enhanced Kindle 3 in August 2010 Amazon, for the umpteenth time it seems, was out of stock of the devices and potential customers faced a wait of several weeks before their new readers could be shipped.

Certainly, the high sales figures of the upgraded Kindles were driven, to a certain extent, by a price cut. Amazon introduced a new Wi-Fi only Kindle for just $ 139 for customers who didn’t have any need for 3G connectivity. If you remember that the Kindle 2.0 was selling for $ 359 at its February 2009 launch, that’s a very significant price reduction. It moves the Kindle – and e-book readers in general – much closer to the sub $ 100 impulse buying zone for personal electronic devices. It’s debatable whether or not the iPad’s release prompted this. The price reduction would have happened anyway, but there is still a lot of scope for further price cuts – and probably in the not too distant future.

However, whilst Amazon and Apple may be enjoying a good deal of success, the same cannot be said for other e-book reader manufacturers. Several planned e-book readers have either been postponed or cancelled all together. The Plastic Logic Que reader, for example, is pretty well dead in the water. The well established Dutch company Irex went bankrupt when they ran out of cash following poor US sales returns for their Irex reader. Sprint and Hearst’s planned Skiff has been cancelled.

Are we heading towards a polarised market with Amazon dominating the low cost “pure” e-book reader sector and Apple cleaning up in the more expensive tablet computer that sometimes serves as an e-book reader market? There’s a large gap in the prices of the Kindle and the iPad. Is there sufficient space between the two devices, in terms of both specification and price levels, to allow new players to enter the market?

Recently Amazon announced that sales figures for Kindle books are outstripping hardback sales. 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 looks like e-books may well be the future of reading, but just what type of device will you choose to read them on?

Check out the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.