Some months ago, Amazon announced that they were selling more Kindle books than hardbacks.Now they have advised that their Kindle books are outselling paperbacks. It can only be a matter of time before Kindle book sales are higher than both hardbacks and paperbacks combined.

When you think about it, it has an air of inevitability.Anyone who is prepared to pay over $ 100 for an e-book reader is probably going to be the type of person who reads a good number of books, surely? Of course, there will always be some book lovers who prefer reading a “real” book – but, over the piece, we do seem to be heading towards a situation where e-books assume increasingly more importance in the world of publishing.

There are plenty of Kindle books available for buyers to choose from.Right now there are more than 800,000 Kindle books on sale on the Amazon website. This number is increasing daily – and there are another 1.8 million out of copyright books which can be downloaded for free. These include some classic works by such authors as Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Homer, Tacitus among others.

Amazon has also released a variety of free apps to allow Kindle books to be read without the use of a Kindle reader. Apps exist for the Mac, the PC, the iPad, the iPhone, the Blackberry and any device running the Android operating system. An app for the new HP tablet computer is said to be in the pipeline. What this means is that users needn’t worry about their Kindle becoming obsolete. Each app also functions as an additional retail outlet for Amazon.

It’s estimated that Amazon currently has around about 90% of the e-book market. That’s not sustainable in the long term and industry experts are suggesting that we will see a three way split between Google, Apple and Amazon - of roughly equal proportions - by 2015. However, those are the same analysts who forecast that the launch of the Apple iPad would sound the death knell for the Kindle, and they didn’t exactly get that right did they?

In fact, the new third generation Kindle reader is selling faster than ever. It was Amazon’s best selling product (again) over the 2010 festive sales season, and the Kindle has now been Amazon’s number one selling product for 18 months. 2011 sales forecasts have been increased from 5 million Kindles to 8 million, based upon recent sales returns. Some rationalisation of the market seems probable in the future, but there’s no evidence that the dominance of the Kindle is going to reduce in the short to medium term.

Related posts

• What Does The Future Hold For The Amazon Kindle? (0)
• Amazon’s New Kindle 3 Is Flying Off The Shelves (0)
• The Kindle 3 What Can You Expect From It (0)
• Go Green — Use An Ebook Reader (0)
• Get Free Books For Your Amazon Kindle (0)

Amazon recently announced that, in the four weeks following the launch of their third generation Kindle, more Kindle readers were sold than during the same time period following any earlier Kindle reader launch. The latest Kindle is, not just still in high demand, but is the fastest selling Kindle ever. As usual, Amazon did not reveal the exact number of Kindles which were sold, but they did advise that, since the release of the new version of the Kindle, customers have bought more Kindles on Amazon.com and the new Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product.

At the end of July, Amazon announced their new Kindle 3. The new Kindle 3 houses the same size of 6″ display in a smaller (21%) and lighter (15%) casing. Page turns are 20% faster and onboard memory has been doubled from 2GB to 4GB – enough for 3,500 books. Battery life with Wi-Fi turned off is now up to 4 weeks and the e-ink technology display has better contrast than ever.

A new entry level Wi-Fi only Kindle was introduced for customers who don’t feel the need for 3G. This sells for just $ 139, with the Wi-Fi plus 3G model on offer at $ 189. Those prices represent massive reductions on the previous $ 359 Kindle price. It’s a clear sign that the e-book reader market is entering a new phase.

During the first half of 2010, Amazon sold 3 times as many Kindle books as they did during the first half of 2009. The number of books available on the Kindle store has now grown to over 670,000 titles – and that doesn’t include the 1.8 million free out of copyright books on offer.

The Kindle remains the top selling product on Amazon’s site. It is also the most wished for and gifted item on the Amazon website.com and Amazon.co.uk. With the strong sales figures of the Kindle and the latest technical improvements, it would be easy to overlook the significance of the launch of the UK Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk. The UK store has opened with 400,000 titles available and could increase international Kindle sales. If it proves to be successful - and early sales returns suggest that this will be the case - then Amazon may well open further Kindle stores in countries like Japan, France and Germany - all of whom have their own “local” Amazon websites.

Whilst Amazon still faces competition from the Apple iPad this doesn’t seem to concern them too much. For the moment at least, the price differential between the Kindle and the iPad is large enough to make the Kindle the natural choice for most customers who are primarily interested in reading books. As the e-book market matures, much more emphasis will be given to the sale of e-books as opposed to e-book readers. The fact that Kindle book sales are outstripping the sales of Apple’s iBooks by a factor of sixty to one must be very encouraging for Amazon.

Related posts

• What Does The Future Hold For The Amazon Kindle? (0)
• Kindle Book Sales Increasing Rapidly (0)
• The Kindle 3 What Can You Expect From It (0)
• IPad 3 Release Date, Could It Be Coming? IPad Three Information It Is Possible To Rely On (0)
• Go Green — Use An Ebook Reader (0)

If your weakness for hard cover books continues to lead you to resist a handheld ebook reader like Amazon’s Kindle, you may change your mind when you think about the ereader as a green gadget. Books, newspapers and magazines use a great deal of paper for production, and the paper and ink process can affect the environment in such a harmful way. So looking at it in this manner, an ebook is an option to go green because this does away with tree cutting.

Ebook reading devices use rechargeable lithium polymer batteries which are another benefit to consider. In comparison to similar accessories, nickel-based batteries, they are not as destructive, and your pocket will thank you when you need not shell out regularly for batteries.

Unfortunately, it is the way it goes, and with these positive attributes, a different set of issues follows. Our society relies heavily on technology, and to meet the needs, electronic companies are frantically coming up with new devices to provide geeks their much-desired tech fix. We acquire the newest gadget, and don’t responsibly get rid of our “old” electronic devices. Electronic waste isn’t going to disappear, and honestly, it is piling up. Recycling isn’t hard, and you can even donate your old gadgets to a non-profit organization or a school that has suffered from budget cuts. For as long as the device is still in decent working condition, you will be making a lot of other individuals happy.

As mentioned earlier, manufacturers are striving to boost the ebook reader’s functionality. At present, it’s a must to recharge an ebook using your laptop or wall charger, depending on which one you own. This does produce greenhouse gases, and as we all know, these gases are also affecting the environment negatively. Perhaps soon, a manufacturer will create an ebook which will be able to get its charge from the sun. What a fantastic excuse to be able to lay out by the pool and read because you need to charge your ereader!

It would simply be ill-advised for a manufacturer to ignore society’s demand for “green” products. With more attention to these important matters, enhancements on gadgets should also focus on environmental issues to safeguard our world and satisfy the market.

If you happen to be still shunning the ebook reader, do a little research. The portability it offers and its user-friendliness  is simply amazing, and reading a book digitally brings the story to life. Moreover, you might wish to think about the simple fact that you are contributing to conserving trees. Most people agree that if you want to go green, using the ebook reader green gadget is a great way of doing so.

Related posts

• Windows XP Operating Sluggish - Five Steps To Getting A Lightning Quick PC Again (0)
• Why You Should Use An On-line Occasion Software Program Solution To Handle Your CPD Programme (0)
• Why You Should Select Voice Biometric Options (0)
• Why Someone Stole My Cellular Telephone (0)
• Why Is Digital Picture Printing Higher Than Conventional Photo Processing? (0)

The Amazon Kindle has established itself as the leader of the e-book reader pack. It enjoys a 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market – Sony’s PRS reader trails in second place with a respectable 35% share - and both the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX are now available worldwide. The fact that almost every new e-book reader which shows the slightest promise is immediately christened the “Kindle Killer” only serves to underline the fact that the Kindle is not only the market leader but the benchmark against which all new readers will be measured.

Bearing in mind the dominance of the Kindle, it’s easy to forget just what a relatively recent entrant it actually is to the e-book reader market. The very first e-book reader – Franklin’s eBookman – was released in 1999, over a decade ago. Sony’s PRS reader hit the market in 2006. The original Kindle didn’t launch until November of 2007. The upgraded Kindle 2.0 launched in February of 2009 and the DX was released in June of the same year.

However, Amazon’s competitors have been far from idle. Sony has released their Daily Edition reader. Barnes and Noble launched their Nook and even the new Apple iPad is widely felt to be a threat to the Kindle. Other e-book readers are available and, needless to say, they all have some features which are currently lacking from the Kindle – colour screen, touch screen functionality etc.

So what will Amazon do differently in future? So far, apart from a few firmware updates, Amazon’s main answer to increased competition has been to drop the price of the Kindle 2.0 from its $ 359 launch price to $ 259. However, rumours abound that a new version of the Kindle is in the offing. Which begs the question – what should Amazon do to update the Kindle?

One explanation for the success of the Kindle is that it provides a superb user experience. It’s very easy to operate using only one hand, the controls are very good and the display is excellent across a wide range of different lighting conditions. It would almost be a shame were Amazon to follow the example of the Sony Daily Edition and introduce touch screen controls. If your main aim is to read books then this probably isn’t a big improvement. If anything, it detracts from the ease of one handed operation. It also necessitates the use of a slightly more reflective screen which may well perform less effectively in certain lighting conditions.

The introduction of color would definitely be a good thing but, were this to be done in the manner of Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader, it would be fairly pointless. The Nook features colour navigation only – the actual reader is still monochrome. This is not necessarilly the huge drawback which some consider it to be. After all – when it comes to reading books, black text on a white background is pretty much the norm.

What Amazon will want to do, and what they have done very well thus far, is to provide a better user experience. Rather than focus on hardware gimmicks, Amazon may decide to go for options which will be genuinely useful to their customers. For example, quicker page turns with reduced screen flicker and prolonged battery life may be enhancements which end users would find beneficial. Likewise, increased choice of  Kindle books, faster downloads and the ability to share e-books might be more important to users than hardware mods.

Amazon has secured the market leadership position as a result of their ability to satisfy customer needs. Predictably perhaps, they have a good understanding of what people who read books actually want. As a result, the Kindle is now their number one selling product and, so far, they have not just led the market but pretty well defined it. The next generation of the Kindle will demonstrate exactly how the market will develop in future. In all probabilitiy, it seems highly likely that Amazon will continue to take the lead in the e-book reader market, rather than following their competitors.

Related posts

• Kindle Book Sales Increasing Rapidly (0)
• Amazon’s New Kindle 3 Is Flying Off The Shelves (0)
• Realizing The Variety Of Custom USB Products (0)
• Go Green — Use An Ebook Reader (0)
• Cross Country Movers: Retaining the Security of Gadgets and Fragile Technology (0)