Kindle Users Look To Third Parties For Kindle Accessories

August 9th, 2009 at 9:14am

Although Amazon are being unashamedly coy 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 original Kindle was released in November 2007 and consumer demand was so great that it went out of stock in less than 6 hours. It was out of stock right up to April 2008.

The Kindle 2, widely viewed as an improvement to an already excellent product, was released in February 2009 and was another big hit with the buying public. In May of 2009 Amazon confirmed that its new, bigeer Kindle DX model would be released and began accepting pre-orders.

All in all, by the middle 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 add to its library of Kindle titles. By early June of 2009 there were over 300,000 Kindle titles available and the collection was growing by, on average, 500 titles per day.

Great business for Amazon and a huge encouragement for repeat custom. Okay, you can buy books for your kindle elsewhere – but these may need conversion, and why bother when the Kindle store has so many great titles that you can download wirelessly in under a minute?

It’s also good news for all those third party manufacturers of Kindle accessories – a rapidly growing market. Amazon originally shipped the Kindle with its own cover supplied. However, when the Kindle 2 was released there was no cover included (many users didn’t like the original cover and bought alternatives anyway). Customers who have just shelled out $359 for their Kindle 2 or $489 for their DX probably don’t think anything about spending another $20 – $40 on a protective cover for their expensive new toy. Like any portable device, it’s bound 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 over $100 for a nice leather cover – which will not only provide some degree of protection but will also make their high tech Kindle look more like a traditional book. Bearing in mind that the Kindle is a pretty high ticket item ,most owners will have some disposable income so it probably isn’t a great shock that they’re happy to pay for a few extras to customise it.

Kindle owners can also choose from a wide variety of other accessories – clip on lights, metal reading stands and additional power chargers are currently popular. As the popularity of the Kindle continues to increase, and as further new models are made available, it seems probable that an increase number of third party suppliers will reap the benefits of Amazon’s innovation.