Accessories Sector Growing For Kindle Ebook Reader

Despite the fact that Amazon are being unashamedly secretive 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 mark one Kindle went on sale in November 2007 and uptake was so high that it sold out in under 6 hours. It remained out of stock right up to April 2008.

The Kindle 2, widely viewed as an improvement to an already successful 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 commenced taking pre-orders for shipping on June 10 2009.

All things considered, by June of 2009 the Kindle was the must have gadget and was often referred to as the “iPod of books”. Meanwhile, in parallel with the development and marketing of the hardware, Amazon continued to expand its collection of Kindle titles. By early June of 2009 there were in excess of 300,000 Kindle titles available and the collection was growing by, on average, 500 books per day.

Fantastic business for Amazon and a huge encouragement for repeat sales. Sure, you can source books for your kindle elsewhere – but these may require translation, and why bother when the Kindle store has so many titles that you can download using 3G wireless connectivity in less than sixty seconds?

It’s also good news for all those third party manufacturers of kindle accessories – a rapidly expanding market. Amazon originally included a cover with the first Kindle, but stopped this practice when the Kindle 2 was released (no great loss perhaps as many users didn’t like the cover and sought alternatives anyway). Customers who have just forked out out $359 for their Kindle 2 or $489 for their DX probably don’t think twice about spending another $20 – $40 on a protective sleeve for their expensive new toy. Like any portable device, it’s sure to come in for a few bumps and scrapes in use – it makes sense to protect it doesn’t it?

Aside from the practical considerations, it seems that some Kindle owners are quite prepared to pay more than $100 for a designer leather cover – which will not only afford some level of protection but will also make their high tech Kindle look more like a “traditional” book. As the Kindle is a pretty high ticket item the majority of owners, will have some disposable income so it probably isn’t a great surprise that they’re ready to pay for a few add-ons to personalise it.

Kindle owners can also select from a wide variety of other accessories – clip on lights, metal reading stands and additionalbattery chargers are currently popular. As the popularity of the Kindle continues to brought to market, it seems likely that more and more independent manufacturers will benefit from Amazon’s innovation.

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