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The Kindle may find itself dethroned as the ereader market grows.
There’s no doubt that the ereader market has experienced phenomenal growth in the past two years. There’s also no doubt that Amazon’s Kindle ereader was responsible for performing literary CPR on an ebook market that was on the brink of death. Amazon’s revitalization of the ebook market has caused many to declare the Kindle to be the iPod of ereaders, and many people already equate “Kindle” with “ereader,” just as many music fans equate “iPod” with “MP3 player.”
Kindle fans, as well as Amazon, have cause to be optimistic. Since its debut in November of 2007, the Kindle store has increased its ebook offerings from 70,000 to over 300,000 titles. Although Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for the Kindle, the ereader has already been released in three different editions: the original Kindle, the Kindle 2 that was released in February, and the Kindle DX that was released in June. Based on these facts, it would be logical to assume that the Kindle has been at least a moderate success for Amazon.
The Kindle may not dominate the ereader market indefinitely, however. According to a recent study conducted by iSuppli, the Kindle currently has a hold on 45% of the ereader market. While that is a respectable chunk of a small but growing industry, iSuppli has more news. Sony, Amazon’s main ereader competitor, currently controls 30%. This would indicate that the Kindle has not achieved the iPod like dominance that some have claimed.
The Kindle could still achieve the longed for iPod status in the ereader industry, of course. However, the competition seems to be preparing for a fight. Within the past month, Sony has introduced the budget priced Pocket Edition of its ereader, and has announced the addition of both the Touch Edition and the upscale Daily Edition to its ereader line in the near future. Also, Asus has announced its plans to release an ereader within the next few months, and Barnes and Noble has resurrected its ebook store from the dead. In addition, Plastic Logic has announced it will be introducing an ereader that will be compatible with Barnes and Noble’s ebook store sometime next year. Add to these facts Sony’s recent announcement that it will be abandoning its proprietary format in favor of the open Epub format, and it becomes clear that the Kindle will soon have major competition to deal with.
With the ereader market projected to grow from one million unit sales in 2008 to 30 million unit sales in 2013 (according to In-Stat), it’s still too early to tell which ereader will be the most popular with consumers. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that as books transition from paper to pixels, the Kindle’s dominance isn’t guaranteed.
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