Although Amazon are being unashamedly coy with regard to sales figures, there can be little doubt that they are happy with the performance of their Kindle ebook reader family to date. The original Kindle went on sale in November 2007 and demand was so high that it sold out in under 6 hours. It remained out of stock until April 2008.

 

The Kindle 2, widely viewed as an improvement to an already excellent product, was released in February 2009 and was another big hit with the buying public. In May of 2009 Amazon announced that its new, larger Kindle DX would be released and started taking pre-orders for shipping on June 10 2009.

 

All in all, by the middle of 2009 the Kindle was the must have gadget and was often referred to as the “iPod of books”. In the meantime, and in parallel with the development and marketing of the hardware, Amazon continued to expand its library of Kindle book titles. By the beginning of June in 2009 there were more than 300,000 Kindle titles available and the number of available titles was growing by, on average, 500 each day.

 

Great business for Amazon and a huge encouragement for repeat custom. Okay, you can buy books for your kindle elsewhere – but these may need conversion, and why bother when the Kindle store has so many great titles that you can download wirelessly in under a minute?

 

It’s also good news for all those third party manufacturers of Kindle accessories – a rapidly growing market. Amazon originally shipped the Kindle with its own cover supplied. However, when the Kindle 2 was released there was no cover included (many users didn’t like the original cover and bought alternatives anyway). Customers who have just shelled out $359 for their Kindle 2 or $489 for their DX probably don’t think anything about spending another $20 - $40 on a protective cover for their expensive new toy. As with any portable device, it’s likely to have a few bumps and scrapes in normal use – so it makes sense to protect it as best you can?

 

Aside from the practical considerations, it seems that some Kindle owners are quite prepared to pay over $100 for a nice leather cover – which will not only provide some degree of protection but will also make their high tech Kindle look more like a traditional book. Bearing in mind that the Kindle is a pretty high ticket item ,most owners will have some disposable income so it probably isn’t a great shock that they’re happy to pay for a few extras to customise it.

 

Kindle owners can also choose from a wide variety of other accessories – clip on lights, metal reading stands and additional power chargers are currently popular. With the growing popularity of the Kindle, and as even more new models are introduced in the future, it seems highly probable that independent suppliers will profit as a result of Amazon’s innovation.

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