Changing Reading Habits With Amazon
Amazon is the largest book seller in the world. It also happens to be the biggest online retail outlet in the U.S. It was founded in 1994, by Jeff Bezos, and the company now has separate websites in Germany, France, the UK, Canada and China.
Given Amazon’s current level of success, it’s easy to forget just how radical the idea of buying books online and then receiving them in the mail was back in the mid nineties. Many industry analysts and investors forecast trouble, and possibly outright failure, for Amazon during its early years. Indeed, it was only at the tail end of 2001 that Amazon finally turned a profit for the first time.
Having changed the way that a lot of people bought books, Amazon quickly diversified into music CDs, video, consumer electronics and computer software - among other things. Today there aren’t many consumer items that you can’t get online from Amazon. You can even buy your groceries from them should you wish.
As diversified and successful as Amazon is today, they still have an extremely strong association with books. Selling books is very obviously something that the company is passionate about. So, when the original Amazon Kindle e-book reader was released in November of 2007, it soon became clear that this was a great product for Amazon - it slotted right in to their business model perfectly.
It’s also easy to forget that the Kindle wasn’t the first e-book reader - not by a long way. Franklin’s eBookman had been released a decade earlier in 1999. The Sony PRS also stole a march on the Kindle when it launched in 2006. However, Amazon don’t seem to have suffered very much as a result of their tardiness. Thanks to their link with books, public awareness and trust in the Amazon brand, combined with the fact that there was a large, and ever expanding, selection of Kindle books and Kindle accessories to choose from, the Kindle rapidly overtook its competitors. In February of 2009 the improved and enhanced Kindle 2.0 was launched, rapidly followed by the large format DX model, and Amazon’s leading position solidified even more. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s best selling product and, during the Christmas period of 2009, the Kindle became the “most gifted” Amazon product ever.
Currently, although the Kindle is still the number one e-book reader on offer, competition levels are increasing exponentially. Alternative readers with touch screen controls and color screens are available. After no more than a few short months the Kindle, in terms of hardware, may be beginning to show its age. However, analysing the e-book reader market purely in terms of hardware functionality is missing the point somewhat.
The fact of the matter is that Amazon, probably more than any other company today, know what the people who read a lot of books - their best customers in other words - want. That’s the reason why Amazon’s dominance of the e-book reader market is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Bear in mind, this is hardly the first revolution in reading that Amazon have initiated - they have the experience, the pedigree and the wherewithal.
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you customise and protect your reader.
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