subject: Lower E-book Reader Prices Could See The E-book Market Grow Faster [print this page] Amazon seemed to have found the perfect product in their Kindle reader. It was by far the market leader in the e-book reader arena, commanding a 60% share of all sales, and there was no real competition to speak of. Despite the release of competing e-book readers by other manufacturers such as Bookeen, Barnes and Noble and Sony, there was no credible competition and the Kindle's top position seemed to be unassailable.
Then the Apple iPad came along and, although it is an entirely different device, it did look set to spoil the party somewhat. The iPad is not without some fairly major flaws of its own, and whilst most Apple devices seem to provoke a love them or loathe them response, the numbers of people who would buy almost anything with the Apple logo on it are certainly large enough to make a major dent in the sales of the Kindle.
As well as releasing new, sexy hardware, Apple also struck a deal with many of the major publishers which let them charge whatever they wanted for e-books as long as they werent offered for less on any other device the Kindle in other words. This looked set to put a bit of a spanner in the works of Amazons policy of providing e-books for $ 9.99 or less. It certainly seems as if the price of e-books has been creeping upwards since the launch of the iPad. It does seem a little strange that increased competition should drive prices upwards but there you have it.
When it comes to the actual e-book reader hardware itself, it's a different story. Barnes and Noble have dropped the price of their Nook reader from $ 259 to $ 199. Amazon have now dropped the price of the Kindle 2.0 from $259 to $189 a very low number considering that it retailed at $ 359 when it was launched in February of 2009. The price of the larger format Kindle DX has also been reduced from $ 489 to $ 379, an event which coincides with the devices first upgrade which includes a higher contrast screen and a new body color.
Even the pricey DX model is now over $ 100 cheaper than the cheapest of the Apple iPad range. Neither is internet connection included in the iPad purchase price as it is for the Kindle range. Certainly the iPad is much more than just an e-book reader,people may very well be quite happy to pay more for a more versatile and powerful device - even if it does have a much shorter battery life.
It will be interesting to see if this round of price cuts is no more than a knee-jerk reaction to the appearance of the iPad on the scene or whether it signals the beginning of a new pricing strategy. It could be that companies like Amazon and Barnes and Noble might take advantage of the trend for higher priced e-books by offering lower priced hardware secure in the knowledge that they will make their profit throughout the life of the device. Or it may simply be a stalling tactic until the next generation color Kindle hits the streets later this year.
