Amazon's Kindle Has Sparked an e-Revolution

A year ago, a few early adopters were playing with their latest toy: Amazon’s ugly, clunky e-reader, the Kindle. It was an idea Sony had tried a few years earlier but failed at miserably.

How the game has changed.

Though Amazon won’t release figures, analysts are guessing that the company has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million Kindles through its online store to date, keeping pace with the iPod, according to ireaderreview.com.

Released last spring, the second-generation Kindle is a sleek, smooth-operating device that could have come out of an Apple factory. And it has been joined by the Kindle DX, a larger version to accommodate newspapers in full-scale -- as opposed to web -- formatting.

You now can buy a Kindle book and read it on your iPhone -- without even having an actual Kindle.

That burgeoning market is poised to explode, led by three Sony models and two devices that will use Barnes and Noble’s new e-bookstores.

From 1 million e-reader units sold in 2008, market research firm DisplaySearch predicts that number will jump to 77 million units in 10 years.

This year, Sony introduced three new readers that it hopes will revive its fortunes. They include the Reader Daily Edition -- the first able to download books using a Kindle-like WiFi, as opposed to computer, connection -- as well as a smaller Pocket edition and a touch-screen version aptly named Touch, that lets the user write notes and swipe through pages with the touch on the screen. (See accompanying article, "The Great e-Reader Smackdown.)

The Daily is the only one with wireless capabilities, like Amazon's Whispernet.

"If you want to download perishable daily information, wireless is important, Sony's Vice President of Digital Reading and Audio Divisions Brennan Mullin told TheWrap. "If you're downloading a book a week, a PC-tethered experience is just fine."

Sony says it has sold 400,000 of its e-readers as of January 2009.

To growing numbers of consumers, the convenience of an electronic book -- the ability to carry over 1,000 volumes, the built-in search, bookmarking and dictionary functions -- in a device the size of a slim paperback that’s easy to read in the sun and lasts for weeks on a single battery charge, is well worth the $300-plus expense.

The drawbacks? It’s possible, of course, the proliferation of e-readers and e-book stores may eventually confuse the consumer. Depending on the device you buy, you’ll find yourself tethered to one or another for your titles, a replay of the old VHS/Beta videotape wars. (See accompanying article, "Battle of the e-Formats.)

And e-readers are only about as technologically advanced as the earliest iPods, in black and white and with limited contrast -- unless you’re willing to fly to Japan and spend $1,000 on Fujitsu’s FLEPia color reader. (Samsung also has a color reader available only in Japan, the Papyrus.)

It’s not just booksellers who see a bright future for electronic readers.

 

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