Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader seems to be constantly in the news. It gets a huge amount of publicity and has received endorsements from celebrities such as Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey and Hilary Clinton (in her role as a member of the New Democratic Leadership Council). Being so consistently in the news has turned the Kindle into an iconic piece of kit, almost on a par with the iPod, and it has very quickly become a landmark of the high tech gadget scene.
It’s easy to forget just how new the Kindle actually is and what a short lifespan it has had. The original Kindle was released in November of 2007. The updated Kindle 2.0 launched in February of 2009 and the large format Kindle DX followed in June of the same year.
It’s a compliment to Amazon, even if something of a back-handed one – that almost every new reader that is announced is instantly nominated to be the Kindle Killer. Something similar is even happening with other devices, like the new iPad from Apple for example. Despite the fact that the Kindle and the iPad are very different devices, many industry analysts are forecasting that the iPad will sound the death knell for the Kindle. In reality, were the Kindle to be put to rest now, it would be more a case of infanticide rather than killing.
It’s easy to forget that the Kindle was only launched relatively recently and that Amazon was a late entrant to the e-book reader market place. The first dedicated e-book reader launched over a decade ago in 1999. Even the Sony PRS hit the streets in 2006, quite some time before the original Kindle.
The fact that the Kindle reader has, in a relatively short period of time, become virtually synonymous with both e-books and e-book readers is a further testament to both Amazon’s business acumen and customer service. Amazon has, simply put, gone way beyond the release of a piece of hardware. The Kindle is much more than a cool piece of personal electronic technology. Amazon seem to have tapped in to a deep rooted consumer need to produce an entire Kindle “experience”.
Of course, as a piece of hardware the Kindle is excellent. It’s well designed and very user friendly. It can be used with one hand on a crowded train, plane or bus. The display is easy to read in different lighting conditions. However, it’s the convenience of buying books and being able to download them in less than a minute – wherever you are and at any time that suits you, the fact that you don’t need to carry big heavy books around, and the huge selection of Kindle books available to choose from that has served to make the Kindle so popular.
Wireless free connectivity, with no monthly or download fees, and Amazon’s brand recognition have also been contributory factors to the success of the Kindle. Amazon is not going to let its best selling product be killed off by anyone. Expect to see a further update to the Kindle in the first half of 2010.
Check out the Amazon Kindle for yourself – and don’t forget to pick up a Kindle cover – it’ll customise and protect your device.