Amazon had a very successful and profitable year in 2009. A good deal of the credit for that must go the Amazon’s “Kindle family” of ebook readers. Both the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX have given Amazon very high sales returns and the Kindle is now Amazon’s best selling product.
At the moment, the Kindle is accounting for 60% of all ebook reader sales in the USA. The Kindle 2 recently had its global launch. Even if Amazon can’t reproduce such good figures on the international stage – though this may well be possible – the increased size of their potential customer base should be more than enough to drive even better results in 2010.
There are those who suggest that much of the Kindle’s success to date has been down to a lack of genuine competition. Whilst it may be true that there weren’t many e-book readers around to go head to head with the Kindle, it would probably be nearer the truth say that the Kindle’s success was chiefly due to the fact that it was an innovative, market changing product.
Whatever the state of the competition may have been in the past, there’s clearly no shortage of competing readers available today. The list of manufacturers who either have their own readers on offer or in development is long, and growing all the time it seems. This can only be viewed as a clear indication that rapid growth is anticipated by industry experts. Even if the market is relatively new and still in its early stages of development, the amount of support from different sources is more than enough to suggest that strong growth is on the cards.
An additional indication of the high probability of growth in this market can be seen in the high number of independent manufacturers currently providing accessories to enhance, customise and protect ebook readers. Currently, most of this range of goods is aimed at Kindle users. Accessories for alternative readers – such as the Nook from Barnes and Noble or Sony’s Daily Edition – will be easier to find in the near future as more people adopt these.
2009 was a good year for Amazon and 2010 will be a good year for ebook readers in general – they will become much more commonplace. The dominant position of Amazon will certainly come under attack and strong competition will result in a downward price trend – possibly driving prices low enough for ebook readers to enter the mainstream personal electronics market.
Market analysts predict that a price of around $ 150 is what is required for this to happen. Considering the amount of competition in the market, it’s not out of the question that this price point may be reached in 2010.
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