Find and Fix Errors

When Amazon’s management team gather to review the company’s performance in 2009, they will have good reason to feel content – but not smug. It’s been a great year for the internet retail giant – and much of the credit must go to the Amazon Kindle reader.

Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February of 2009. It was generally regarded as a big step in the right direction. Amazon had clearly listened closely to customer feedback regarding the original Kindle, launched in 2007. Wireless connectivity and the enormous library of Kindle books were retained and quicker page turns, extended battery life and increased storage capacity were among the improvements which were introduced.

Best selling author, Stephen King wrote a special Kindle book to mark the launch and the Kindle 2 quickly became the “must have” gadget amid a blaze of publicity.

Just a few months later, in June of 2009, Amazon released the Kindle DX. This had a large screen and was targeted at readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks. A little surprisingly perhaps, it was the conservative world of academic publishing that helped to gain the DX a lot of publicity.

The academic community very quickly realised the potential opportunities which the Kindle offered. Not only would it be very much faster to update textbooks but interactive education – pop quizzes and tests for example – would be possible. Academic bodies would not only save money as a result of using paperless books, but they would be more environmentally friendly also – an important factor for such institutions who have both budgets and environmental targets to meet these days.

As well as establishing partnerships with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon benefited from a lot of publicity generated by political bodies such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – both of whom waxed lyrical on the educational potential of e-book readers in general and the Amazon Kindle in particular.

However, as bright as things were looking for Amazon, there were indications that trouble was looming. Other manufacturers, having observed Amazon develop the e-book reader market, were now becoming aware of the enormous potential of this fledgling sector. An impressive list of competitors, including companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Barnes and Noble, wanted their share – and they all had their own readers in development.

In a way, it’s a huge compliment to Amazon that practically every ebook reader in development which shows the slightest promise is immediately given the title of the “Kindle Killer”. The problem is that, at this time, and despite all the development work by the competition, Amazon is still the only game in town. Sony’s Daily Edition reader and the Nook from Barnes and Noble have both had their release dates put back. In fact, it looks ever more likely that the most probable source of the long awaited Kindle Killer would be Amazon itself. The Kindle 4 is the most likely challenger. Could we hope to see it in the next twelve months?

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Tags: Amazon Kindle, e-book readers, ebook readers, electronics, gadgets, Kindle 2, Kindle DX