When the dust settles and the sales returns are all in after the 2010 festive season, there's little doubt that it will have been another record breaking year for the Amazon Kindle reader. In spite of the premature rumors of the Kindle's imminent demise as a result of the launch of Apple's iPad, Amazon's category leading ebook reader just seems to go from strength to strength.
Even without the introduction of a touch sensitive, the launch of the Kindle 3 in the autumn of 2010 opened the gap between the Kindle reader and the following pack even further. In addition to a host of technical upgrades, including increased memory (enough for up to 3,500 titles), a better contrast display and a smaller and lighter case, Amazon introduced an entry level WiFi only model.
With a retail price of just $ 139, the WiFi only Kindle is less than a third of the price of the entry level iPad. For $ 189 you get the WiFi plus 3G version - still a lot less money than even the cheapest iPad. The fact that there are no monthly download fees associated with the Kindle is another huge point in its favor.
Another big selling point of the Kindle has always been the huge selection of Kindle books available for download from Amazon's website. At this time, there are in excess of 750,000 Kindle books on sale via Amazon's Kindle store. There are a further 1.8 million out of copyright titles, published prior to 1923 - including many literary classics - which are available for free download direct from the Amazon website.
One of the concerns that many potential e-book reader buyers seem to have is that they may become tied to a particular brand of reader. They feel concerned that, having amassed a collection of e-books in a particular format, they may not be able to port these over should they opt to buy a different type of reader at some point in future.
This potential problem has been dealt with extremely efficiently by Amazon who have released a wide range of free apps that let users download and read Kindle books without the need for a Kindle reader. There are currently Kindle apps available for the Mac, PC, the iPad, the iPhone, any device which runs the Android OS, the Blackberry smart phone and the latest generation of Windows phones. It's a strategy which seems likely to pay dividends for Amazon. Not only does it overcome the concerns regarding the transfer of books, but each of these apps effectively acts as another retail outlet for Kindle books. It's estimated that around 20% of all Kindle books sales are the result of transactions conducted using non-Kindle devices. That percentage is likely to rise in future.
Rather than having been "killed" by the Apple iPad, or any other device, 2010 has seen the dominant position of the Kindle becoming even more firmly established. The very fact that the Kindle's only serious competition comes in the form of a tablet computer which is more than three times the price of the Amazon reader should tell a story in itself. It will be interesting to see how the e-book and e-book reader market develops in 2011 - the Amazon Kindle will certainly continue to play a major role.
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