Will Amazon Increase Their Product Range?

Amazon is enjoying great success with its latest third generation Kindle reader right now. An upgrade – which includes a higher contrast screen, smaller and lighter casing, faster page turns and twice as much memory – accompanied by a price drop and the introduction of a new Wi-Fi only entry level model, has seen demand for the Kindle reader rocket.

Demand is outstripping supply for the new Kindles and potential customers are currently facing a three to four week wait before replacement stock starts shipping. Kindle books are now selling more than conventional hard cover editions on a regular basis. It looks to be only a matter of time before e-book sales outstrip paperback sales.

Amazon has also opened a dedicated UK Kindle store so that UK customers don’t require to have their Kindles shipped across the Atlantic and can pay for their Kindle purchases in sterling rather than dollars. It seems probable that further “local” Kindle stores will be opened for other Amazon international websites such as Germany, France etc. in the not too distant future.

Currently, everything in the garden is rosy for Amazon. Whilst many industry watchers suggested that the launch of Apple’s iPad would sound the death knell for the Kindle, there is little evidence to suggest that this is, in fact, the case. The Amazon policy of releasing free “apps” which allow Kindle books to be read on a wide variety of different devices seems to be paying dividends. So, considering what a massive success they have enjoyed with their first manufactured product, it’s hardly surprising that Amazon is rumored to be considering developing prototypes for personal tech gadgets other than the Kindle in their Lab 126 research facility.

Amazon has made no comment on what they may, or may not, be developing, but it has been suggested that they may be looking at mobile phones and music and/or movie players. However, industry analysts suggest that, were Amazon to enter the market with another gadget, they would need to be sure that they were adding value rather than just releasing another piece of personal electronic tech onto the market.

Much of the success of the Kindle reader must be attributed to Amazon’s strong link with books and reading in general. The massive choice of Kindle books on offer – more than 630,000 and increasing every day – and the fact that these can be read on so many other devices has been a big selling point. Any new gadget that Amazon decided to release would certainly need some similar type of support in order to achieve anything approaching the level of the Kindle’s success.