E-Book Pricing Favors The Kindle Reader

The Amazon Kindle e-book reader has been a hugely successful product for Amazon. It was first released in November of 2007 – but it was the launch of the Kindle 2, in February 2009, which saw e-book readers really take off. Amazon followed up with the large display Kindle DX model in June of 2009 and the e-book reader market started to grow exponentially.

Very quickly the Kindle became Amazon’s best selling product. Over the Christmas period of 2009, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” ever product. As a result of the rapid growth and development of the e-book reader market, many other manufacturers either updated or launched e-book readers of their own. The increased level of competition forced prices downwards and meant that prospective buyers had additional options to choose from.

With increased choice available, potential e-book reader customers need comparisons of the different options on offer. It’s possible to find many reviews on the internet which compare the Kindle with Sony’s Daily Edition reader, Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader with the iPad etc. However, comparing e-book readers in terms of the hardware alone would be missing the point of the whole e-book reader experience. In general, as with any piece of personal electronic equipment, the most recently released model will probably have a few bells and whistles which are lacking in the older models. Factors such as usability, legibility of the display, the number of books available, the price of books, the ease of purchasing books etc. all need to be taken into account.

Whilst some of these are subjective to a certain extent, others can be analysed more objectively and factored in to the equation when deciding upon which e-book reader to buy. The Amazon Kindle certainly has an advantage when it comes to the number of Kindle books available. There are over 420,000 titles on the Amazon website and that number is growing every day. When it comes to the cost of the books, it seems that the Kindle also enjoys a significant advantage.

A recent study conducted by the New York Times considered the cost of 10 books – consisting of the New York Times 10 Best books of 2009, 5 non-fiction and 5 fiction titles – for 3 different e-book readers, the Nook, the Kindle and Sony’s PRS reader. When bought for the Kindle, the 10 books cost a total of $136.87, an average of $13.69 per book. The same set of 10 books purchase from the Sony store produced an average price of $15.26. The average price per book from the Barnes and Noble site worked out at an astonishing average price per book of $19.29.

Therefore, based upon these figures, if you read a book a week, you would save almost $300 every year by buying a Kindle instead of the Nook. What that would mean, is that your Kindle reader would not only pay for itself, but would leave you with a few dollars spare to buy some books in less than a year. Currently there are a lot of discussions taking place between e-book retailers and the major publishing houses. It may be that e-book prices may be subject to change in future. However, it seems obvious that any prospective e-book buyer would do well to consider not only the availability of books but their price level before deciding upon which e-book reader to buy.

Get the facts on the Amazon Kindle – and have a look at the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you both protect and customise your reader.

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