informationToys

Towards the end of the year, when the Amazon management team gather to look over the company’s performance in 2009, they will have some reason to feel content – but not smug. It’s been a great year for the internet retail giant – and a lot of the credit must go to the Amazon Kindle reader.

Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February of 2009. It was widely 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 collection of Kindle books remained 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 rapidly became the “must have” gadget among a blaze of publicity.

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

The academic community was quick to realise the potential opportunities which the Kindle offered. Not only would it be very much faster to keep textbooks updated but interactive education – pop quizzes and tests for example – would be possible. Academic bodies would not only save money as a result of using electronic 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 agreeing partnerships with a number of universities and colleges, Amazon benefited from a good deal publicity created by political bodies such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – both of whom held forth on the educational benefits of e-book readers in general and the Amazon Kindle in particular.

However, as bright as things were looking for Amazon, there were signs 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 the likes of 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 virtually every ebook reader in development which shows the slightest promise is immediately dubbed the “Kindle Killer”. The problem is that, at the moment, 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 increasingly likely that the most probable source of the long awaited Kindle Killer might be Amazon itself. The Kindle 4 is the most likely challenger. Might we hope to see it sometime next year?