Even although the e-book reader market is still very new, it has huge potential for expansion in the very near future. Up until now, the Amazon Kindle reader family has been the undisputed market leader. The Amazon Kindle 2, released in February of 2009 – and the large format Kindle DX, launched in June of 2009, have completely dominated the market and have had very little genuine competition. The importance of the market, and its potential size, can be demonstrated by the fact that the Kindle is now Amazon’s number top selling product.
However, there are plenty of manufacturers with new readers in the pipeline, many of which are planned for release before the end of the year with some others to follow in the early part of 2010. Two of the main contenders for the Kindle’s crown are the Sony Daily Edition reader and the Nook reader from Barnes and Noble. Both of these were planned for launch in mid-December 2009, in time to catch the pre-Christmas sales rush.
The new Sony Daily Edition, which retails at $ 399, is now available for pre-order. Sony are not guaranteeing that it will be delivered before Christmas though. According to their website, pre-orders will start shipping on December 18 and customers will receive them on a “first come first served basis”. The number of customers who have enquired about the Daily Edition has been considerably more than Sony’s pre-launch estimates and, whilst Sony will endeavour to get the readers out in good time for Christmas, there are no cast iron guarantees being offered at this time.
Meanwhile, the Barnes and Noble Nook, which was also scheduled for a mid-December roll-out, has had its launch date delayed until January 2010 for any orders received after November 20. High demand is again cited as the reason for the delay.
In an attempt to salvage some holiday sales, Barnes and Noble is providing a “holiday certificate” for the Nook which advises the lucky gift recipient that they should get their hands on the device sometime in early 2010. Not quite the same thing on Christmas morning – is it?
So, whilst all the signs are there that the e-book market is going to grow very big, very fast during the course of next year, for the moment at least, Amazon is still number one and is likely to clean up in the holiday gift stakes. Competition will certainly increase dramatically next year, but Amazon has a pretty clear run at sales this Christmas at least. Next year, it will be surprising if Amazon doesn’t aggressively defend its number one slot – they currently supply 60% of the U.S. e-book reader market) and it should be interesting to see what develops. Consumers will be the main beneficiaries of this increased level of competition as it will tend to produce lower prices.
