Assuming that you haven’t been in hiding for the last ten months or so, you must surely be aware of the Amazon Kindle reader. The Kindle 2 launched in February 2009 and Amazon followed up with the large screen Kindle DX just a few months later.
The Kindle is now Amazon’s top selling product – something it achieved in an very short time indeed. Currently it accounts for 60% of all e-book reader sales in the U.S. market. Amazon recently launched the Kindle 2 onto the worldwide stage, selling to over 100 countries around the globe. It seems highly likely that its domestic success will be repeated internationally.
The Kindle is now practically synonymous with e-book readers – but it’s not the only reader on the market. Manufacturers of personal consumer electronic devices – such as Sony, Microsoft, Apple and even Barnes and Noble now – all want their share of the market and have their own readers ready for launch in the near future. Competition for this new market is going to be savage. It’s a real compliment to Amazon that almost any e-book reader which shows any potential is instantly dubbed the “Kindle Killer”.
The Kindle 2 is priced at $ 259. That represents a $ 100 reduction on the $ 359 launch price. That’s still a fairly high price. Many industry analysts estimate that a ticket price around the $ 150 mark is what’s required to allow e-book readers to move out of the high tech gadget market and into the mainstream consumer arena. Certainly, the higher levels of competition that looks set for next year will produce a downward pressure on the price of e-book readers, which may mean that the $ 150 price point is reached during 2010.
Meanwhile, if you have a notion to treat yourself to a Kindle but are a little put off by the price, then consider the broader picture cost-wise. E-books don’t use paper, ink or bindings – and they don’t have the costs associated with shipping a physical product that a traditional paper book has. They are therefore, quite a bit cheaper than paper books. If you read a fair bit – say a book a week – then the money you save on books could pretty soon pay for the cost of your nice new reader.
In fact, even better than cheap e-books, it’s possible to download free Kindle ebooks from the Amazon website. A lot of them are classics which are now out of copyright. Sherlock Holmes, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Moby Dick, are just a few examples. However, you will also find modern novels and new releases which are on special offer from publishers. As well as the completely free e-books, Amazon’s selection of 360,000 Kindle titles include many books which are available for a pretty nominal fee – $ 0.01 is not unusual. You could recoup the cost of your Kindle very quickly by choosing free and low price Kindle books.
Learn how easy it is to quickly and legally download free Kindle ebooks and your Amazon Kindle will pay for itself before you know it.
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