Computer Recipes

Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was launched in February and the large format DX followed shortly afterwards in June. The Kindle very rapidly became Amazon’s top selling product – even before the international launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

During the 2009 festive season, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day 2009, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. Of course, that was probably due to all those lucky people who had received a Kindle as a Christmas gift. It seems likely that, having unwrapped their gift, happy new Kindle owners would want to test their new toy. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. If some feel that the method of achieving this was slightly artificial then perhaps that simply underlines how well the Kindle fits into Amazon’s business model.

Needless to say, Amazon’s competitors have been enviously eyeing their success and taking steps to ensure that they secure a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies who have their own new e-book readers currently under development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics manufacturers. Apple, Samsung, Sony and Microsoft are some of the competitors who will be going head to head with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.

A lot of the next generation of e-book readers will include features which will make the current Kindle seem dated. Color displays, touch screen controls and an industry standard e-book format which will let users lend e-books to family and friends or even to borrow books from digital libraries are just some of the features which users can anticipate.

You can be sure that Amazon will not rest on its laurels while their competition enters the market which Amazon has worked so hard to develop. The current Kindles, as innovative as they were just a few short months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the (very) near future. Amazon probably already has their next generation Kindle under development (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon will be anticipating further success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.