The Kindle 3 Has Set New Standards In 2010

At the end of the 2010 festive season, when the sales returns are tallied up, there seems little doubt that the Kindle reader will have enjoyed another record breaking year. Despite the premature rumors of the Kindle's imminent demise as a result of the launch of Apple's iPad, Amazon's category leading ebook reader just seems to go from strength to strength.

Even without the introduction of a color screen, the launch of the Kindle 3 in the autumn of 2010 widened the gap between the Kindle reader and the chasing pack even further. As well as a variety of technical enhancements, including a better contrast display, a lighter and smaller case and increased memory capacity, Amazon introduced a WiFi only entry level model.

Priced at just $ 139, the base model Kindle is less than a third of the cost of the entry level iPad. Even the WiFi plus 3G model - priced at $ 189 - is still considerably cheaper than the base iPad model. The fact that the Kindle has no monthly download or connection fees associated with it is another big selling point.

Another huge attraction about the Kindle has always been the massive library of Kindle books available for download from Amazon's website. Currently, there are in excess of 750,000 Kindle books being sold on Amazon's website - and that number is increasing every day. As if that wasn't enough, there are an additional 1.8 million out of copyright titles - including many classics - which are available for free download.

Being "tied" to a particular brand of e-book reader is a concern which many prospective buyers seem to have. They feel concerned that, having amassed a collection of e-books in a particular format, they may not be able to port these over should they opt to buy a different type of reader at some point in future.

Amazon have, rather neatly, overcome this by releasing so many free apps for the Kindle which allow Kindle books to be read on a wide variety of other devices. At the moment, free Kindle apps exist for the PC, the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad, the Blackberry smart phone, the Windows phone and any device which runs Android. It's a clever strategy on Amazon's part. As well as overcoming any concerns regarding the transfer of e-books, each of these apps is effectively a retail outlet for Kindle books. Non-Kindle devices are estimated to account for around 20% of all Kindle book sales. That's a number which seems likely to increase as time goes on.

All things considered, 2010 has seen the Kindle strengthen its leading position in the e-book reader market. The fact that the only credible competition to the Kindle comes in the form of a tablet computer which costs more than three times as much as Amazon's reader tells a story in itself. The Kindle will certainly continue to play a major role in the development of the e-book market in 2011 and beyond.



________________________________