How Many Devices Can You Read Kindle Books On?
April 11, 2010
The Amazon Kindle e-book reader – in addition to being an incredibly successful product for Amazon – has played a very important role in putting both e-books and e-book readers on the map. However, it didn’t achieve its success as a result of being first to market. Franklin launched the eBookman reader in 1999 – more than ten years ago – and the Sony PRS reader was launched in 2006, well in advance of the original Kindle launch date of November 2007.
The market really took off in February of 2009 with the launch of the Kindle 2.0. Very quickly, the Kindle became Amazon’s best selling item (no mean feat) and, with a 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market, was clearly the market leader. Any new reader which shows any promise is immediately given the title of “Kindle Killer” – which just confirms that the Kindle is the standard against which all other e-book readers are judged.
The latest challenger for the Kindles’ top slot is the Apple iPad – and it could very well be the strongest contender yet. Is it the future of mobile computing or is it just a bigger version of the iPod Touch? At the end of the day it doesn’t matter much – it’s going to sell well for Apple.
The immediate reaction to this new threat was for Amazon to release an “app” that allows Kindle books to be read on the iPad. Not much sign that they’re running scared of the latest Kindle Killer there,
In fact, considering the number of apps that Amazon have now released to allow Kindle books to be read without the use of a Kindle – there’s one for the PC, the Mac, the iPod, the Blackberry, and now the iPad – you might be forgiven for thinking that, despite the huge success of the Kindle to date, Amazon may well be a somewhat reluctant manufacturer.
You might be forgiven for thinking that Amazon are more interested in selling Kindle books than they are in selling Kindle readers. You would imagine that Amazon have a good idea where the money is going to be made in the e-book market in the future. Is there a message there? Just a thought.
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.