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Some months ago, Amazon announced that they were selling more Kindle books than hardbacks.Now it seems that Kindle book sales have overtaken paperback sales as well. It surely can’t be long before Kindle book sales are higher than both paperback and hardback sales combined.

When you think about it, it has an air of inevitability. It seems reasonable to suppose that the type of person who is prepared to pay $ 139 for a Kindle is likely to be someone who reads a fair number of books, don’t you think? There will always be a few bibliophiles who prefer the feel of a traditional printed book – but, over the piece, we do seem to be heading towards a scenario where e-books assume increasingly more importance in the publishing world.

There’s certainly no shortage of Kindle books for prospective customers to choose from. Currently there are in excess of 800,000 Kindle books on sale on Amazon’s Kindle store. This number is growing daily – and there are a further 1.8 million out of copyright books which can be downloaded for free. These include titles by the likes of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Homer, Virgil among others.

Amazon has also released a variety of free apps which permit Kindle books to be read without the use of a Kindle reader. These exist for the PC, the Mac, the Apple iPad, the iPod Touch, the Blackberry smart phone and any device which runs Android. An app for the HP tablet computer is believed to be imminent. What this means is that users needn’t worry about their Kindle becoming obsolete. Each app also serves as an extra sales outlet for Amazon.

Amazon are estimated to enjoy around about a 90% share of the current e-book market. Obviously that can’t continue, and industry analysts are forecasting an approximately equal three way split between Amazon, Google and Apple by 2015. However, those are the same analysts who forecast that the launch of the Apple iPad would be the death of the Kindle, and they got that wrong didn’t they?

In point of fact, the new third generation Kindle reader is selling faster than ever. It was Amazon’s best selling product (again) during the 2010 festive sales season, and the Kindle has now been Amazon’s best selling item for eighteen months. 2011 sales forecasts have been increased from 5 million Kindles to 8 million, based upon recent sales returns. Some rationalisation of the market seems probable in the future, but there’s no evidence that the dominance of the Kindle is going to reduce in the short to medium term.

Read all about the Kindle 3 for yourself. It’s the future of reading – you can even play games on the Amazon Kindle – some games are even free!

Now that the dust from the festive sales season has died down a little, it seems obvious that it has been another incredibly successful year for the Amazon Kindle reader. The latest Kindle 3, which launched at the end of August 2010 has pretty much carried on where the Kindle 2.0 left off and kept it’s position as Amazon’s best selling product.

During the 2010 Christmas sales period (Nov 14 to Dec 19) it was the top selling item on Amazon’s site. The 8GB iPod Touch was in second place.

Amazon, as usual, are not confirming any specific numbers. However, industry analysts have increased their prediction for 2011 Kindle sales from 5 million units to 8 million. It’s also noteworthy that Amazon currently has an estimated 90% of all ebook sales.

It’s the combined effect of the Kindle reader and the huge selection of Kindle books which seems to give Amazon the edge. Amazon currently has more than 800,000 Kindle books on sale. In addition to those paid titles there are a further.8 million out of copyright titles – including classics by the likes of Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Virgil, Sir Arthur Conan doyle and Emily Bronte – which are all available as free downloads. You can economise and expand your library at the same time.

Amazon has, quite cleverly, made many free Kindle “apps” available. These allow users to read Kindle books on other portable electronic devices, so there’s no need to worry about losing your ebook library should you decide to change hardware. At the moment, Kindle apps exist for the Windows PC, the Mac computer, the Apple iPad, the iPhone, the Blackberry smart phone and any device running the Android operating system. Of course, each of these apps can also be considered to be an effective route to market for Kindle books.

Whatever your personal feelings may be regarding the comparison between ebook readers and “real” books, it seems to be abundantly clear that the Amazon Kindle is the leading ebook reader by a long way. It’s telling that the only genuine competition to the Kindle seems to be the Apple iPad, a tablet computer which retails at more than three times the cost of the Kindle.

Analysts are predicting that Amazon’s share of the ebook market will drop off in the coming years. But with a 90% market share, that’s hardly a damning indictment. Some downward movement is, quite frankly, almost inevitable. It’s forecast that, by 2015, there will be a roughly equal split in ebook sales between Amazon, Google and Apple. Of course, considering the current rate of growth, all that will mean is that Amazon will have a slightly reduced share of a vastly increased market.

At the moment, there is little to suggest that the dominance of the Kindle is reducing. The potentially increased competition following the launch of the iPad doesn’t seem to have knocked Amazon of its stride. As the market develops and matures, some degree of rationalisation seems inevitable – but, for the time being at least, Amazon look set to capitalise on their dominant position and will most likely continue to be one of the key players in the ebook market for a long time to come.

Learn all about the Kindle 3 for yourself. It’s the future of reading – you can even play games on the Amazon Kindle – some games are even free!

For years there has been an outcry about the imminent death of the publishing industry. There is some truth to the fact that people do not read at the volumes that they have previously, but it becomes difficult to find the gems when the entire market is flooded with writer after writer. It is hard to put any credence behind any significant death of books, but there is truth to the adage that things have to change. With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle Reader, publishing took a shift that is proving to be permanent.

In a word: yes! There is so much to offer with this device and while it will most likely not usurp all paper books there will be a shift of mass electronic reading device use. The problems initially dealt with computer screens and the difficulty in staring at them for extended lengths of time. Who would read an entire novel on a screen without getting head or eye aches?

This isn’t a problem with the invention of electronic ink. There is no glare with these screens through the ingenious re-use of already known technology. It is a reinvention of the etch a sketch! The Kindle, by now is not the only reader on the market but it consistently leads the pack.

The greatest benefit of this product is for those who travel excessively or have long commutes. Packing a bag or luggage down with more than one or two novels can be a logistical pain. With an e-reader you can carry hundreds up books within your hands so you freely go back and forth between different stories.

This is not an issue anymore as the Kindle can hold hundreds of books and at this point Amazon offers more digital books than anyone else. New releases are often much cheaper in digital form and you don’t have to wait until it gets released that way as it is often concurrent with any hard covers.

There is a nice added bonus of free classics so that you can finally get around to reading the books you never cared about in high school without paying anything for them. You can also read excerpts of some books that you are iffy on in purchasing so that this slim and light reader is like literally having an entire bookstore at your disposal. Most people just don’t have time to get to bookstores and now they don’t have to.

In terms of technological features, the wireless speed is great and allows you to download an entire novel in under a minute. This way you can get as many books as you like since with a memory card you can have hundreds of books at your disposal. The reader is actually very affordable and pays for itself in a matter of months.

If you compare the price that you pay for six books against the Kindle you’ll realize that there is no reason to keep throwing your money away. Books will most likely never really go out of style, but digital books are at the forefront of the new publishing frontier.

Discover the Kindle reader for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.

The Amazon Kindle reader is one of the main reasons that ebooks ever took off. Unpopular when the only option was to read them on an ordinary computer screen, sales of ebooks skyrocketed when specialized devices were created to allow a more enjoyable reading experience. Now, they are commonplace.

“Kindle” is actually a type of software formatting, which was originally only available on the ebook readers carrying the name. This software can be downloaded to personal computers, Windows and Android phones, now, too. This lets people buy and read ebooks from Amazon on their laptops, desktops, or smartphones, without having to buy the reader itself.

The device itself comes in two different formats, the original and the DX. The DX is larger than the original, and though somewhat more cumbersome, is sold as a better device for reading newspapers, textbooks, and other large books and printed materials. None of the textbooks that can be downloaded in the Kindle format preserve the manufacturer’s page numbers, however, which can be a problem when quoting for scholastic purposes.

Ebook readers are popular because no one likes reading on the standard computer screen. Smartphones would have taken over completely if people just wanted portable books, but since ebook readers have a more comfortable screen for reading, they are still selling. Ebook readers feature a gray-scale screen that isn’t as bright as a traditional computer screen, and is improved upon between every generation of readers.

There have been three generation of Kindles now, and reviewers state that the latest version, the third, has vastly improved upon the screen technology of the first two. This new version is the first to have wifi capabilities, allowing downloads of eBooks from anywhere with wireless network access.

Both Kindles number 2 and 3 have at least one option with 3G cell phone network access capabilities. Every version 2 device has this capacity, but there is a cheaper variety of version 3 that only has wifi and lacks the 3G network access capability. The variety of version 3 with 3G access has been criticized for not having as nice of reception as version 2 did.

Ebook readers allow people to take their favorite novels everywhere with them without having to carry around many bulky books. The modern Kindles can hold over 1500 non-illustrated books (such as novels). The main downside to these devices is that the books must be purchased “new”, instead of checked out from a library or bought for cheap as used copies. This can be pricey, and deter some people who would otherwise love to own one.

Get more information on the Kindle 3 for yourself and learn why electronic books are the future of reading.

When you’re looking for gift ideas – for Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries or any other special occasion, the Amazon website is the ideal place to do a little research. They are definitely the largest, and probably the best known, online retailer in the world after all. With online retailers like Amazon, it’s very easy to see what is selling well. You can be certain that any product in the Amazon top sellers list is very popular indeed. These lists can serve as a great source of gift ideas.

So you can be sure that the best selling item on the Amazon website is extremely popular. As a matter of fact, you are guaranteed that it is in huge demand. Since the end of 2009, The Kindle reader has been the number one selling item on the Amazon website. There was no shortage of industry analysts who anticipated the demise of the Kindle at the hands of the Apple iPad – but, in fact, it seems to be selling faster than ever.

The release of the improved Kindle 3 in August of 2010 simply underlined Amazon’s dominant position in the ebook reader market. The new third generation Kindle has a number of specification enhancements – including increased memory (it can now store up to 3,500 books), an improved, high contrast e-ink technology display and a smaller and lighter casing.

Amazon also launched a new, WiFi only, entry level model – which is ideal for anyone who doesn’t need to connect away from a WiFi zone. The WiFi plus 3G model also saw its price fall to just $ 189. Both of these options are priced considerably below even the entry level iPad, and that was undoubtedly a major factor in ensuring that the third generation reader became the fastest selling version of the Kindle to date.

The fact that the Kindle has no download fees, or any monthly connection charges, is another big selling point for it. Although Amazon is somewhat secretive as far as precise sales figures go, a company spokesman recently confirmed that the Kindle 3 had sold “millions” between its August launch and mid-December 2010.

The new reduced prices make e-book readers very attractive to potential buyers. Considering that e-book prices are typically lower than conventional printed books, and also that there are many out of copyright books available as free downloads, it’s very possible that users could recover the cost of their reader in a relatively short time.

2010 may well prove to be the year that e-book readers finally go mainstream. Lower price levels, improved functionality and an ever expanding number of available books to choose from will make e-book readers in general, and the Kindle 3 in particular, a popular gift choice during the 2010 festive season and also into 2011.

Check out the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.

It looks certain that, when the sales returns are totted up at the end of the year, 2010 will prove to have been another record breaking year for the Kindle reader. Despite the premature rumors of the Kindle’s imminent demise as a result of the release of Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s top selling ebook reader just seems to go from strength to strength.

Even without the inclusion of a color screen, the launch of the Kindle 3 in the autumn of 2010 opened the gap between the Kindle and the chasing pack even further. In addition to a host of technical upgrades, including increased memory (enough for up to 3,500 titles), a better contrast display and a smaller and lighter case, Amazon introduced a WiFi only entry level model.

Priced at just $ 139, the base model Kindle is less than a third of the cost of the entry level iPad. The WiFi plus 3G model is available for $ 189 – still well below the iPad price level. The fact that there are no monthly download fees associated with the Kindle remains another very big selling point of course.

Another huge attraction about the Kindle has always been the vast number of Kindle books available for download from Amazon’s website. At this time, there are in excess of 750,000 Kindle books on sale via Amazon’s Kindle store. In addition to this, there are a further 1.8 million out of copyright titles – including many classics – which are available for free download.

The prospect of being tied to one brand of e-book reader is something which seems to worry many potential customers. They worry that, having built up a library of a particular type of e-book, they may be unable to switch their books over should they wish to buy a different type of reader in the future.

This potential problem has been dealt with extremely efficiently by Amazon who have released a wide range of free apps that let users download and read Kindle books without the need for a Kindle reader. Currently, there are free Kindle apps for the PC, the Mac, the iPad, the iPhone, the Blackberry smart phone, the Windows phone and any device which uses the Android operating system. It’s a very smart strategy for Amazon. Over and above doing a good job of addressing the concerns regarding the portability of books, each one of these apps acts as an outlet for Kindle books. Current estimates suggest that around 20% of all Kindle book sales are made via non-Kindle hardware. That percentage will probably continue to grow in future.

All things considered, 2010 has seen the Kindle strengthen its leading position in the e-book reader market. The fact that the only credible competition to the Kindle comes in the form of a tablet computer which costs more than three times as much as Amazon’s reader tells a story in itself. It will be interesting to see what 2011 brings for the e-book reader market in general – and the Kindle in particular.

Learn all about the Kindle 3 for yourself. It’s the future of reading – you can even play games on the Amazon Kindle – some games are even free!

Sales during the festive season are vitally important for any retailer. More than 30 to 40% of annual sales can be made in the few weeks leading up to Christmas. For Amazon, Christmas 2009 was an extremely important period, for a number of reasons in addition to the normal sales surge.

Amazon’s Kindle 2.0 reader, which launched in February of 2009, and which had already proven to be a hugely successful product for Amazon, became the online retail giant’s most gifted, most wished for product ever and – most important of all – Amazon’s number one selling item. It has held the position of number one selling product on the Amazon website ever since.

On Christmas day 2009 itself, for the first time ever, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did physical books. Almost certainly, this would have been heavily influenced by those lucky people who got a Kindle for Christmas testing their Kindles by logging on and downloading one or two Kindle books. Many of these would almost certainly have been free Kindle books (there are 1.8 million of these to choose from).

Even so, it was still a major achievement for Amazon and a sign of things to come. Currently, Amazon regularly sells more Kindle books than hardcover books – by a factor of 180 to 100. It seems probable that it will only be a matter of time before Kindle books are outselling paperbacks as well.

In the autumn of 2010, Amazon launched their upgraded Kindle 3 reader. There were a variety of technical improvements – including extra memory (enough space for 3,500 Kindle books), an improved e-ink technology display with sharper contrast and a smaller and lighter casing. The new, entry level Kindle – which can be yours for just $ 139 – was also revealed. For another $ 50 you can get hold of the Wi-Fi plus 3G model – which is still significantly cheaper than the original $ 359 launch price of the Kindle 2.0.

The Kindle, with a $ 139 price tag, is very close to being a personal electronics “impulse buy”. You could pay a good deal more for something such as a mobile phone or a mid level mp3 player!

In spite of the release of the iPad from Apple – touted by many as the device which would finally end the Kindle’s dominance – the Kindle 3 rapidly became the fastest selling Kindle thus far. Amazon, almost inevitably, sold out of their readers and customers faced a wait – of up to five weeks at one point – before their reader could be delivered.

The Kindle had already established itself as the market leading e-book reader. The upgraded Kindle 3 simply increased the gap between the Kindle and the chasing pack. The fact that the Kindle’s only genuinely credible competitor is a versatile tablet computer which costs over three times the price of the Kindle tells a story in itself.

Amazon won’t be counting their chickens before they’re hatched – but they must surely be expecting their new, improved Kindle to deliver another set of record breaking sales returns this Christmas. It will be interesting to see if (when) Kindle stocks run out once again in the run up to Christmas. Customers are limited to a maximum of three Kindles each right now – a clear indication of Amazon’s confidence in their number one reader. It looks like the Kindle is going to be a big hit for Amazon over the Christmas 2010 season once more.

Read all about the Kindle 3 for yourself. It’s the future of reading – you can even play games on the Amazon Kindle – some games are even free!