E-Commerce and Online Stores news

Internet retail giant, Amazon, must have been over the moon with the 2009 sales results for its Kindle reader family. The Kindle 2.0 was released in February and, just a few months later in June, Amazon followed up with the launch of the large format Kindle DX. The Kindle quickly became the number one selling product for Amazon – even before the Kindle 2.0 was launched on the worldwide stage in October.

After the results for the 2009 festive season were in, the Kindle had also become the “most gifted” product ever for Amazon. On Christmas day 2009, more Kindle e-books were sold than traditional paperbacks or hardbacks. Of course, that was probably a result of all those lucky people who received a Kindle as a gift. Having opened their gift and got their Kindle out of the box, proud new owners would have been eager to try out their new toy. Downloading a Kindle book or two from Amazon’s Kindle store would have been the natural thing to do.

Even so, for Kindle books to outsell traditional books is still a noteworthy achievement. Although some may feel that this came about in a slightly artificial manner, in reality it just underlines the eminent suitability of the Kindle to Amazon’s overall business model.

It goes without saying that Amazon’s competitors have been enviously eyeing their success and taking appropriate action to ensure that they grab a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers in development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics multinationals. Microsoft, Apple, Sony and Samsung are just a small selection of the competitors who will be competing with Amazon in 2010. Not to mention Barnes and Noble who have thrown their hat into the ring with their Nook e-book reader.

A lot of the next generation readers will have features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look somewhat dated. Touch screen controls, color displays and an industry standard e-book format which will allow users to lend e-books to friends and family or even to borrow books from participating lending libraries are just a few of the features which users can look forward to.

Amazon will certainly not stand idly by whilst their competitors break into the market which Amazon has been so instrumental in developing. As innovative as the current Kindle were considered just a few months ago, Amazon are almost certainly hard at work developing the next generation of Kindle reader. Bearing in mind the level of innovation and drive which Amazon have displayed to date, they will probably be quietly confident of even further success in 2010. Kindle users can expect a new enhanced Kindle, packed with features – probably no later than the middle of the year.

Check out the amazing Amazon Kindle reader and have a look at the full range of Kindle accessories available to help you customise it to suit your taste.