Amazon Kindle has been there for a decade now and I have been using it for the past 8 years. Completely hooked on to it and I rarely buy paper editions. Saves cost, instant availability of the book for reading, and plenty of options to read. What more an avid reader wants? Amazon has nailed this perfectly and has been minting a good amount of money out of it.
In 2007 Investing in an unproven technology & concept for a long period is pure risk-taking even for Amazon. It takes years of hard work and perseverance in the vision to come up with such a device and then the actual business hustle starts to make it successful.
As a Product Manager, here is how I look at it from business and user’s point of view.
The concept – To be able to buy and read any book without visiting the bookstore and instantly syncing on your device is just a great concept in itself. Plenty of books available on the platform and plenty of users to target makes it a successful business.
Connecting the technology (e-Ink display), with the marketplace, authors and readers are just a unique concept that Amazon has pioneered. No competitor comes close to it even after a decade – Just amazing!
The book form factor – The book-sized form factor with a lightweight device having a 30-day battery that can be carried anywhere is the best device one can get as a reader. This does not come easy for Amazon, I am sure a good few years of research went in to build the device in the first place where nothing similar existed. Surely, it was a gradual revision beyond that to see what we have today. A brief history is here if you are interested to read.
The e-Ink display – Getting the e-Ink display of a book that does not strain your eyes and as well gives you 30 days of battery is just superb. Reading on a kindle is so convenient and you don’t miss the actual book. Anyone like me would hate going back to paper books. The display too went through so many incremental updates to make it the best display of today. The display gets you the required focus to read the book without any notifications, disturbances, and fading battery.
The marketplace – Amazon already had users coming to its site to buy books and other items. They know thousands of authors publish books every year and millions of users who buy those books. Amazon just transformed the entire reading platform for authors and readers in a way to make it so much convenient and cost-saving. People like me who do love to write can now jot their ideas into a book and publish it online for free. The number of authors now dramatically increased from thousands to millions which exponentially increases the options anyone has today as compared to just a decade ago.
First-time authors now don’t need to find a publisher for their book, rather just focus on their creative skill and write it in a format that can be understood by kindle software – and Bingo you have millions of users to target worldwide on day one!
As per online sources, there are around 3.4M Kindle books today with one new book added every 5 minutes!
Huge market opportunity – Almost everyone can read. There are so many great things to read and the category of books seems endless today, from cooking, technology, business, self-help, fiction, non-fiction, spiritual, literature, biographies, stories, and many more. As a reader, you have so much variety to choose from and that is the appealing factor for Amazon. Give people what they want and continue to expand the options they have – This mantra has helped Amazon to expand their business. The eBook reader market is projected to be $12 Billion and Amazon is the major player in this market.
The progress made so far – Amazon launched the first version in Nov 2007 at $399 per unit and could hold 200 books. This was sold out in just 5.5 hours of launch. Just an amazing feat to start with the first version.
Today they are selling the 10th edition of Kindle at $129 per unit to start with and the best version Kindle Oasis at $249 per unit which can hold up to 4400 books. Price reduced, features increased by 10x, convenience improved to a greater extent and readers love it.
So many improvements came in, touch, paperwhite, 3G, bigger and better screen, audiobooks, longer battery life, clubbed with Amazon kindle unlimited membership to make millions of books available to read for free. The innovation continues to tap the market and be the leader in this space.
Authors love it – Any professional author or amateur author now can get their book’s Kindle platform in minutes for free. You don’t need to chase publishers, print books, dispatch it to bookstores and wait for customers to visit and read the intro. Many of the people who always wished to write their books now have a platform to publish and make a profitable business out of it. I am sure, a good number of people would have left their day job to seek their passion to write & publish books every year.
Readers love it – A wide option of books to read. An instant cost-effective way to buy books. The convenience of reading books on kindle and carrying thousands of books on the go is what readers love. Kindle Paperwhite has a 4.5 / 5 rating by 70K users in the US. So far estimated around 90M+ kindles have been sold.
Competition – Surely there is a competition for Amazon kindle. Barney & Nobles in the US, Rakuten Kobo in Canada, Hanvon in China, Bookeen in France, and a few more.
Looking at the innovation Kindle has brought through several years, their marketplace of millions of books, huge reader base, and their market reach over the world has made Amazon Kindle the best eReader of all time. They will lead the market for the next decade and beyond and would hardly worry about their competitors.
Mangesh is Product Leader
Full Bio here – https://mangesh.bhamre.in
