Ebooks rekindled
Jinfo Blog

19th May 2009

By Penny Crossland

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Since reporting on Amazon’s ebook reader Kindle at the beginning of the year (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e16493), the online retailer has been busy developing new applications and formats of the reader. Largely still confined to the North American market, the Kindle has been going from strength to strength, with the device accounting for 10% of total North American book units or 4 million books sold during the first quarter of 2009. Some analysts have calculated that Amazon ebook users are purchasing two books per month on the Kindle (http://digbig.com/4yshf). Keen to maintain these levels of sales, Amazon has upgraded its original reader and rolled out applications that will appeal to different types of readers. The Kindle application for iPhone and iPod Touch will appeal to the younger generation and those constantly on the go; the newly launched Kindle DX (http://digbig.com/4ysjs), which allows users to subscribe to blogs (http://digbig.com/4yshe), is an ebook reader in a larger format. It has an inbuilt PDF reader and is designed for the education market. Partnership deals with textbook and newspaper publishers mean that students will be able to purchase cheaper digital textbooks via Kindle, rather than having to carry heavy textbooks around with them. There is still room for improvement, however: as yet, the new Kindle screen displays back and white text only, not ideal for displaying photos or illustrations. Surely, a colour screen is essential for the student audience. However, let’s not forget that Amazon is not a technology company. Its remit is to sell books, and preferably in digital format. Digital books have higher margins than their hard-copy counterparts or even the ebook readers themselves. How long before business information directories and journals are made available on Kindle?

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