Will Amazon Launch The Kindle 4 In 2010?

2009 has been an important year for e-book readers – substantially as a result of the efforts of Amazon. Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an updated and enhanced version of the original Kindle which launched in November 2007.

A few short months later, Amazon launched the large format Kindle DX reader. This was targeted at readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks – and it caused a bit of a stir.

The possibilities for use in the academic environment – from interactive textbooks to constantly updated texts, and not overlooking the potential for academic bodies to save a lot of money – attracted plenty of attention. In addition to entering into partnership with various colleges and universities, Amazon received plenty of free publicity from the political scene – such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his capacity as Governor of California.

Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and innovation – helped by all the free publicity – the Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s top selling product. The Kindle currently has an incredible 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently launched an international version. The Kindle has become virtually synonymous with e-book readers.

It’s probably worth reflecting upon the fact that Amazon were a late entrant to the e-book reader market. The original e-book reader, generally agreed to be the Franklin eBookman, was launched a decade ago in’99. Even Sony’s PRS reader beat Amazon to market.

Amazon, although not first to market, combined clever marketing with technical innovation and a strong focus on customer needs and achieved the dominant position in the e-book reader market. Features such as the large number of books available for download to the Kindle (currently 360,000 and growing every day) and wireless connectivity were just as critical to the Kindle’s success as technical functionality.

Having developed the market, Amazon now finds itself with plenty of competition looming. Microsoft, Sony, Barnes and Noble, Samsung, Apple, Palstic Logic – the list seems endless – all have their own readers due for launch or in the final throes of the develoment cycle.

Wireless connectivity, currently one of Amazon’s strong selling points, will become standard and Barnes and Noble will offer users of their new Nook reader over 1,000,000 titles to choose from. Sony’s new Daily Edition reader will allow users to download e-books on loan from participating lending libraries. There will most likely be some standard e-book format adopted in 2010, and this will allow let users lend e-books to family and friends or port them over to other readers should they so wish.

Right now, a lot of industry watchers are eyeing the line up of new readers and trying to guess which one is the Kindle Killer. All the same, Amazon has shown plenty of business acumen to date, so don’t expect them to give up their top slot without a fight. It took them less than a year and a half after the launch of the original Kindle to release the much improved Kindle 2. The DX reader was released no more than a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has big plans for the further development of their e-book readers. Is it possible that the real Kindle killer will actually be the Kindle 4 and that could we see this in 2010?

Find out all about the Amazon Kindle ebook reader #1, and check out the full range of Kindle accessories available.