Amazon has enjoyed incredible success with its Kindle e-book reader. At the moment, it’s Amazon’s number one selling product. Amazon currently enjoy a 60% share of the American market for e-book readers and, now that both the Kindle 2.0 and the DX are on sale globally, Amazon’s potential customer base has increased dramatically.
At the moment, Amazon’s main competition is Sony – with a 35% share of the American e-book reader market. However, there are plenty of manufacturers who have watched the rapid development of the e-book reader market and now want a piece of the action. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had a separate section for e-book readers for the first time ever. Over two dozen companies – some of them household names, others less well known – had e-book readers on display. This is a clear indication of the perceived potential in the market.
However, what a lot of the “me too” e-book reader manufacturers seem to be forgetting is the fact that the hardware’s technical features, whilst they are undeniably an important element in an e-book reader’s success, form only one side of the equation. The success which Amazon has enjoyed with the Kindle reader up to now has been due to a number of different factors which are largely unrelated to its technical performance. The fact is that Amazon is in a very strong position which gives it a strong competitive advantage in the field of e-book reader sales in comparison to its competitors.
It is, after all, the largest book seller in the world – bar none. It therefore has, in the view of the buying public, a very strong association with books. It also has a strong association with consumer electronic devices – admittedly in the capacity of a merchant – but the association is there. In any event, the Kindle has now established Amazon’s credentials as a manufacturer (although they subcontract the manufacture) in a big way.
So, in reality, those manufacturers who think they are going to steal Amazon’s crown by producing a reader which has a few more bells and whistles, or is somehow “cooler”, could be in for a nasty surprise. It will probably take another very well known and trusted corporation to make any significant impact on the scene now. The likes of Apple or Microsoft would be prime contenders – and they both have readers, or devices which could be used to read e-books at least, in development. Sony now have a well established e-book reader pedigree, so they must consider themselves to be a contender. Barnes and Noble? Maybe.
It really doesn’t seem likely that some small electronics company is going to smash Amazon’s dominance in the near, or even mid-term, future. Possibly some partnership or coalition could throw up a few surprises here and there. However, it looks more and more likely that Amazon’s Kindle reader is actually going to be the new iPod of reading.
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle reader and find out how to save money by downloading free Kindle books – directly from Amazon
