Sales over the festive gift giving season are vitally important for any retailer. Somewhere between 30 and 40% of yearly sales can be made in the weeks running up to Christmas. From Amazon's perspective, the 2009 festive season was a very important period for a variety of reasons over and above the usual annual sales boost.
Amazon's Kindle 2.0 e-book reader, released in February of 2009, and which had already proven to be a massively successful product for Amazon, became the online retail giant’s best selling, most gifted and most wished for product ever. It has been the number one selling item on the Amazon website ever since.
Amazon actually sold more Kindle books than traditional printed books for the first time ever on Christmas day of 2009. Almost certainly, this would have been heavily influenced by those lucky people who got a Kindle for Christmas testing their Kindles by logging on and downloading one or two Kindle books. A good number of these would almost certainly have been free, out of copyright, Kindle books (there are 1.8 million of these available to download).
However, it was still a very good achievement for Amazon and a sign of things to come. Currently, Amazon regularly sells more Kindle books than traditional hardback books – they are selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardbacks at the moment. It looks like it will be no more than a matter of time before Kindle book sales outstrip paperback sales as well. No doubt, at some point in future, Kindle books will sell more than both hardbacks and paperbacks combined. The only question is when will that happen?
In the autumn of 2010, Amazon unveiled their enhanced Kindle reader. There were a number of technical upgrades – including more memory (enough space for 3,500 Kindle books), an improved e-ink technology display with higher contrast and a smaller and lighter casing. Amazon also unveiled their new, base level Wi-Fi only Kindle - which sells for just $ 139. The Wi-Fi plus 3G model is still available at $ 189 – still significantly lower than the $ 359 launch price of the Kindle 2.0.
With a $ 139 price tag, the Kindle is very close to being a personal electronics "impulse buy". You could quite easily pay quite a bit more for something like a mobile phone or a mid level mp3 player!
In spite of the release of the iPad from Apple - which many business analysts predicted would be the device which would finally end the Kindle's dominance - the Kindle 3 became the fastest selling Kindle to date. Amazon, for the umpteenth time, sold out of their readers and customers faced a wait - of up to five weeks at one point – before they could get their hands on their readers.
The Kindle was already the top selling e-book reader. The upgraded Kindle 3 simply increased the gap between the Kindle and the chasing pack. The fact that the Kindle’s only genuinely credible competitor is a versatile tablet computer which costs over three times the price of the Kindle tells a story in itself.
Amazon won't be counting their chickens before they're hatched - but they must surely be expecting their new, improved Kindle to deliver another set of record breaking sales returns this Christmas. It will be interesting to see whether or not Amazon run out of Kindles again in the run up to Christmas. Customers are limited to a maximum of three Kindles each right now – a clear indication of Amazon’s confidence in their number one reader. It looks like being another Kindle Christmas in 2010.
Amazon's Kindle 2.0 e-book reader, released in February of 2009, and which had already proven to be a massively successful product for Amazon, became the online retail giant’s best selling, most gifted and most wished for product ever. It has been the number one selling item on the Amazon website ever since.
Amazon actually sold more Kindle books than traditional printed books for the first time ever on Christmas day of 2009. Almost certainly, this would have been heavily influenced by those lucky people who got a Kindle for Christmas testing their Kindles by logging on and downloading one or two Kindle books. A good number of these would almost certainly have been free, out of copyright, Kindle books (there are 1.8 million of these available to download).
However, it was still a very good achievement for Amazon and a sign of things to come. Currently, Amazon regularly sells more Kindle books than traditional hardback books – they are selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardbacks at the moment. It looks like it will be no more than a matter of time before Kindle book sales outstrip paperback sales as well. No doubt, at some point in future, Kindle books will sell more than both hardbacks and paperbacks combined. The only question is when will that happen?
In the autumn of 2010, Amazon unveiled their enhanced Kindle reader. There were a number of technical upgrades – including more memory (enough space for 3,500 Kindle books), an improved e-ink technology display with higher contrast and a smaller and lighter casing. Amazon also unveiled their new, base level Wi-Fi only Kindle - which sells for just $ 139. The Wi-Fi plus 3G model is still available at $ 189 – still significantly lower than the $ 359 launch price of the Kindle 2.0.
With a $ 139 price tag, the Kindle is very close to being a personal electronics "impulse buy". You could quite easily pay quite a bit more for something like a mobile phone or a mid level mp3 player!
In spite of the release of the iPad from Apple - which many business analysts predicted would be the device which would finally end the Kindle's dominance - the Kindle 3 became the fastest selling Kindle to date. Amazon, for the umpteenth time, sold out of their readers and customers faced a wait - of up to five weeks at one point – before they could get their hands on their readers.
The Kindle was already the top selling e-book reader. The upgraded Kindle 3 simply increased the gap between the Kindle and the chasing pack. The fact that the Kindle’s only genuinely credible competitor is a versatile tablet computer which costs over three times the price of the Kindle tells a story in itself.
Amazon won't be counting their chickens before they're hatched - but they must surely be expecting their new, improved Kindle to deliver another set of record breaking sales returns this Christmas. It will be interesting to see whether or not Amazon run out of Kindles again in the run up to Christmas. Customers are limited to a maximum of three Kindles each right now – a clear indication of Amazon’s confidence in their number one reader. It looks like being another Kindle Christmas in 2010.
Post Title. 11/08/2010
E-books and e-book readers are a relatively recent phenomenon. However, the public seems to have taken to them very rapidly. A lot of the thanks for that has to go to the Amazon Kindle reader – in particular the Kindle 2.0 which was released in February of 2009. The third generation Kindle was released in August of 2010 and, despite prophecies of doom for the Kindle following the release of the Apple iPad, is selling faster than ever.
However, it was the Kindle 2.0 that really brought e-books to the attention of the public.
Equally important was the large number of Kindle books available. Amazon has always been ahead of the chasing pack in terms of the number of titles on offer. Today they have over 750,000 Kindle books available on their Kindle store – and that’s just the paid titles. There are over 1.8 million out of copyright titles which can be downloaded free of charge.
However, whilst the public may have taken to e-books, the same cannot necessarily be said about the major publishing houses. The introduction of e-books has totally changed the traditional publishing cycle. Not only are e-books cheaper than printed books – due to the fact that they require no paper, ink or bindings – but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be made available at the same time as the hardback. No need to wait months for the paperback, the e-book version is available from day one.
Obviously, having a cheaper version available at the same time as the hardback is something which could impact upon the sales of hardback books. According to Amazon, they are currently selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardbacks. This seems to have given many of the big publishers cause for concern. They have already had several run ins with Amazon over the pricing of e-books.
Publishers like Penguin, Hachette and Harper Collins recently switched to the “agency model” for their e-books. What this means is that the publishers set the price rather than the retailer (Amazon). This has seen e-book prices rise – in some cases to the point where they cost more than the hardback version.
Kindle owners quickly retaliated by awarding “one star” reviews to books where they felt that the Kindle book price was too high. Some fairly critical comments were left on the Amazon website – aimed at the publishers by and large – and it was suggested that potential customers boycott both the Kindle and the hardback versions until prices are set at more reasonable levels. Some prices have already come down.
Here's a couple of fairly typical comments left on the Amazon UK website:
"The price of this book is simply absurd. An e-book costing more than the hardback? Ridiculous. I enjoy Iain Banks' work and wait for each new novel with great anticipation. But I'm not going to pay these nonsense prices. Does the publisher take me for a fool?"
"I am generally a big fan of the Culture books but there is no way I will pay more than the hardback price for an e-book version. This is simply publisher's greed."
It seems to be incredibly short sighted of the publishers to take such a blatantly profit oriented tack. After all, it seems reasonable to assume that e-book reader owners read more than their fair share of books. You wouldn’t buy an e-book reader if you read a book a month, would you? In other words, e-book reader owners are the target market for the major publishing houses.
It also seems obvious that e-books should cost less than printed books. Apart from their lack of paper, ink and bindings, they have no delivery fee to speak of. They are also more environmentally friendly – even allowing for the materials used in the e-book readers themselves. It seems likely that the owners of e-book readers could work this out and that they would, quite reasonable, expect prices to be set accordingly.
Whilst it’s not out of the question that the publisher’s tactics may help to maintain their profits in the short term, they run the risk of antagonising their best customers by adopting this approach. Artificial price hikes are likely to alienate the buying public and, after a series of one star reviews and public calls for buying boycotts, authors would probably also be somewhat unhappy. Publishers have every bit as much to gain from the e-book revolution as the public. The savings apply on both sides of the fence, publishers save money – which should be passed on to the public. If publishers can adapt to e-books, in the same way that readers have, they may continue to thrive. On the other hand, if their greed for short term profits blinds them to the possible opportunities afforded by this new medium, they will be rejected by both their readers and their authors.
As a general rule, in the world of consumer electronics, increased competition is good news for customers. It tends to have the dual benefit of giving end users more choice whilst driving prices lower. You can see this pattern repeated in any number of markets – there are very few exceptions.
In theory at least, the e-book reader and e-book market should be no different. This has been heavily dominated by the Amazon Kindle reader and Kindle books. Since the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009, the Kindle has been the clear market leader and Amazon have done a lot to develop the market, for both e-book readers and e-books.
Other manufacturers, such as Barnes and Noble, Sony and Plastic Logic, either developed or updated their own e-book readers so as to compete with the Kindle and to secure their share of the developing e-book reader market. Although there was no sign of a “Kindle Killer” and Amazon retained their top spot, the increased competition did lead to lower e-book reader prices. Which is just what you would expect - nothing unusual there and good news for customers.
So it seems a little odd that now the Kindle faces some genuinely tough competition – in the shape of the new Apple iPad – prices look set to rise. Amazon has had a policy of pricing Kindle books at $ 9.99 or less, something which has caused problems with the big publishing houses who, understandably perhaps, want to safeguard the profits from their lucrative hardback editions. However, in parallel with the launch of the iPad, Apple will be unveiling their own e-book store – and they have struck agreements with many of the major publishers which allows them to set the prices of their e-books at whatever level they like – just as long as they don’t allow any other retailer access to that same content at a lower price. The result of this is that Amazon have had to back down and let publishers charge more for newly released books.
Apart from protecting the interests and profits of the big publishing houses, it’s hard to see any logic in this. Even disregarding the fact that increased competition should naturally lead to lower prices, why should customers be expected to pay over the odds for a digital product which costs a fraction of the physical product’s cost and has virtually no delivery fees?
Apple do seem to have joined forces with the major publishing houses in order to keep prices and profits high. It may be a tactic that will work in the short term, but it seems unlikely that consumers will tolerate artificially inflated prices for long.
In theory at least, the e-book reader and e-book market should be no different. This has been heavily dominated by the Amazon Kindle reader and Kindle books. Since the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009, the Kindle has been the clear market leader and Amazon have done a lot to develop the market, for both e-book readers and e-books.
Other manufacturers, such as Barnes and Noble, Sony and Plastic Logic, either developed or updated their own e-book readers so as to compete with the Kindle and to secure their share of the developing e-book reader market. Although there was no sign of a “Kindle Killer” and Amazon retained their top spot, the increased competition did lead to lower e-book reader prices. Which is just what you would expect - nothing unusual there and good news for customers.
So it seems a little odd that now the Kindle faces some genuinely tough competition – in the shape of the new Apple iPad – prices look set to rise. Amazon has had a policy of pricing Kindle books at $ 9.99 or less, something which has caused problems with the big publishing houses who, understandably perhaps, want to safeguard the profits from their lucrative hardback editions. However, in parallel with the launch of the iPad, Apple will be unveiling their own e-book store – and they have struck agreements with many of the major publishers which allows them to set the prices of their e-books at whatever level they like – just as long as they don’t allow any other retailer access to that same content at a lower price. The result of this is that Amazon have had to back down and let publishers charge more for newly released books.
Apart from protecting the interests and profits of the big publishing houses, it’s hard to see any logic in this. Even disregarding the fact that increased competition should naturally lead to lower prices, why should customers be expected to pay over the odds for a digital product which costs a fraction of the physical product’s cost and has virtually no delivery fees?
Apple do seem to have joined forces with the major publishing houses in order to keep prices and profits high. It may be a tactic that will work in the short term, but it seems unlikely that consumers will tolerate artificially inflated prices for long.
Why E-Book Readers Are Important 03/23/2010
E-book readers became very popular in 2009. These devices had been around for a decade - the Franklin eBookman was released in 1999 - but it was the launch of the Amazon Kindle 2.0, and the larger Kindle DX model later in the year that seemed to propel both e-book readers and e-books into the mainstream consumer consciousness. The Kindle reader quickly became Amazon's best selling product and, with the huge growth in the e-book reader market, other manufacturers either upgraded their existing readers or developed new ones to get their share of what was clearly a hot, emerging market.
With so many different e-book readers available, and considering that they really are "hot gadgets", it's no surprise that there is a lot of focus on the hardware. It would be easy to get so wrapped up in the technical aspects of e-book readers that the broader - and more important - implications are overlooked.
The fact of the matter is that, as well as changing the way that books are read, e-book readers will change the way that books are published, purchased and delivered. Without getting too melodramatic, e-book readers probably represent the biggest change in books and reading since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1442.
When it comes to reading, most potential customers will probably be more interested in how e-book readers compare with reading a "real" book than how one e-book reader compares with another. The e-ink technology displays used in modern e-book readers really are very good and produce a reading experience that is similar to reading printed text on paper. A recent survey of U.S. e-book reader owners found that 80% of them preferred using their e-book reader to reading a traditional paper book. That's a fairly solid endorsement of the reading experience.
Most e-book readers feature either 3G or Wi-Fi wireless connectivity these days. That means that, as long as you have a connection, you can buy and download an e-book whenever and wherever you like. Much is made of the fact that e-books consume no paper, ink or bindings. The fact that the delivery of a physical book can double its carbon footprint is often overlooked. The fact is that e-books are both environmentally friendly (even allowing for the materials and energy used in the production of the reader hardware) and cheaper than conventional books.
As far as publishing goes, e-books change the traditional cycle of hardback release followed, usually a few months to a year later, by the paperback edition. The cheaper e-book edition is now available alongside the newly published hardback version. This is something that has caused the big publishing companies - who want to protect their profits from hardback sales -something of a dilemma. However, they will need to embrace the new technology and adapt their business models to suit.
E-book reader owners, although currently in the minority, are rapidly becoming a very influential group. People who read a book a month are not about to rush out and buy an Amazon Kindle or Sony Daily Edition reader. People who own e-book readers read a lot of books. That gives them power and influence. They are the target demographic of both booksellers and publishers and will therefore be as instrumental in shaping the future of books as the e-book reader manufacturers themselves.
With so many different e-book readers available, and considering that they really are "hot gadgets", it's no surprise that there is a lot of focus on the hardware. It would be easy to get so wrapped up in the technical aspects of e-book readers that the broader - and more important - implications are overlooked.
The fact of the matter is that, as well as changing the way that books are read, e-book readers will change the way that books are published, purchased and delivered. Without getting too melodramatic, e-book readers probably represent the biggest change in books and reading since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1442.
When it comes to reading, most potential customers will probably be more interested in how e-book readers compare with reading a "real" book than how one e-book reader compares with another. The e-ink technology displays used in modern e-book readers really are very good and produce a reading experience that is similar to reading printed text on paper. A recent survey of U.S. e-book reader owners found that 80% of them preferred using their e-book reader to reading a traditional paper book. That's a fairly solid endorsement of the reading experience.
Most e-book readers feature either 3G or Wi-Fi wireless connectivity these days. That means that, as long as you have a connection, you can buy and download an e-book whenever and wherever you like. Much is made of the fact that e-books consume no paper, ink or bindings. The fact that the delivery of a physical book can double its carbon footprint is often overlooked. The fact is that e-books are both environmentally friendly (even allowing for the materials and energy used in the production of the reader hardware) and cheaper than conventional books.
As far as publishing goes, e-books change the traditional cycle of hardback release followed, usually a few months to a year later, by the paperback edition. The cheaper e-book edition is now available alongside the newly published hardback version. This is something that has caused the big publishing companies - who want to protect their profits from hardback sales -something of a dilemma. However, they will need to embrace the new technology and adapt their business models to suit.
E-book reader owners, although currently in the minority, are rapidly becoming a very influential group. People who read a book a month are not about to rush out and buy an Amazon Kindle or Sony Daily Edition reader. People who own e-book readers read a lot of books. That gives them power and influence. They are the target demographic of both booksellers and publishers and will therefore be as instrumental in shaping the future of books as the e-book reader manufacturers themselves.
