Expect Another Kindle Update In 2010
Amazon just announced that they will start shipping their large format Kindle DX reader to more than 100 countries. This follows on from the global launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October of 2009.
The Kindle family has been very successful for Amazon. Although they haven’t released precise sales figures they have confirmed that the Kindle is now their best selling product and also that the Kindle became Amazon’s most “gifted” item ever over the 2009 festive period. The Kindle is also thought to account for approximately 60% of all e-book reader sales in the USA, a figure which just underlines Amazon’s current market leadership.
It has taken quite some time for Amazon to go global with what is now its flagship product. There were various difficulties securing suitable wireless services for the Kindle both in Europe and other parts of the world. Presumably, this must have taken a lot of Amazon’s resource and focus to overcome.
Now that this has been resolved, it would be reasonable to assume that Amazon will be redoubling its efforts in the development of a new Kindle device (the Kindle 4?). There are a lot of other companies who now have their own readers on the market – Sony and Barnes and Noble for example – and, on the face of it, some of these readers incorporate features which will make the Kindle look somewhat outdated before very much longer.
However, considering the fact that Amazon have been so instrumental in the development of both e-book readers and the e-book market in general, it seems unlikely that they will stand back whilst their competitors “eat their lunch”. Surely we can expect to see a seriously updated Kindle before the second half of 2010.
