Amazon’s Kindle reader is the clear leader in the ebook reader market, a position which it has held for some time now. Contrary to what many people imagine, it was not the first reader on the market – far from it in fact. The reality is that the Kindle has achieved the top slot by offering consumers an excellent combination of both hardware and accompanying ebooks.
There are plenty of other very good readers on offer, but the tag team formed by the Kindle reader and Kindle books has made it difficult for other readers to establish any significant market share. There are over 900,000 Kindle books available on the Amazon website at the time of writing. A further 1.8 million out of copyright books can be downloaded free of charge.
Customers are spoiled for choice. Given the large selection of available Kindle books, customers can buy the Kindle reader with confidence. More Kindle reader sales drive Kindle book sales ever higher. Amazon find themselves benefiting from an upward sales spiral and, unless some other company manages to break into the inner circle, Amazon look likely to be the major force in the ebook and ebook reader market for some time to come.
Just at the moment, the Nook reader from Barnes and Noble seems to be the main competition to the Kindle. In common with Amazon, Barnes and Noble has both the reader and the ebooks for use with it – in fact, they claim to have even more titles for customers to choose from – 2,000,000 – than Amazon.
Unfortunately for Barnes and Noble, the Kindle has been beating the Nook into a distant second place for quite a while now. However, the recently released Nook Touch, complete with touch screen controls, looks like it could close the gap on the Kindle. The new Nook features a number of other upgrades over and above touch screen controls and which may make it an attractive option for many ebook reader buyers. It’s a huge step in the right direction for B&N. Only time will tell whether or not it will be sufficient to steal the Kindle’s crown.
The launch of iRiver’s Story HD reader also took place over the last few weeks. This took place just two weeks after Barnes and Noble launched the upgraded Nook Touch. The Story HD reader incorporates various technical features. It boasts the first XGA e-ink technology display in the world for example. With a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, it beats the 800 x 600 of both the Kindle and the Nook. However, the truly revolutionary thing regarding the Story HD may be the fact it is the result of a partnership involving Google and iRiver. Story HD users will be able to choose books from the Google eBookstore and download them direct to their reader using Wi-Fi.
The combination of the Story HD reader hardware and Google books could well be enough to smash the present Kindle vs Nook monopoly and force the ebook reader market into a three way split in the near future.
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