Is the Kindle 2.0 the “iPod” for Books?
Has Amazon hit the mark? Will the Kindle 2 become wildly popular as the “iPod” for books?
With nearly 1000 comments from purchasers in the first half of March, it would seem that the Kindle is “selling like hotcakes”. The Kindle 2.0 was released February 24, 2009. And while Amazon has not officially released how many Kindle 1 units were sold last year, estimates are that Amazon sold more than 500,000.
And when Oprah endorsed the Kindle on her “Favorites” show in October (2008) Amazon is said to have sold over 100,000 Kindles in that week alone. Analysts estimate that Amazon sold 500,000 of the Kindle 1. That’s strictly a guess, however, as Amazon is keeping very tight lipped about that.
But will the Kindle be the iPod for books? It depends on how you look at it. The Kindle 2.0 will be wildly popular for readers just as the iPod has become wildly popular for music fans. Just as the iPod made music light and mobile, the Kindle does the same for a reader. The Kindle makes taking your entire library with you as easy as slipped an 11 ounce item in your bag.
Will the Kindle be the iPod of the book industry – making book downloads the way of the future? The iPod paired with the iTunes store has virtually wiped out the old school CD store by offering digital downloads. Will Amazon be able to replace the “printed page” with downloads? I don’t see that happening with the Kindle and Amazon.
Kindle will not replace the paper book. In fact, Steve Kessel (of the Amazon Kindle team) reports that Kindle users buy just as many bound books as before, so that their total consumption of books goes up by 2.6 times (the Economist). And until all publishers are on board and available on the Kindle, total dominance is one thing Amazon will not be able to master.
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