Kindle Accessories In Demand As Kindle Sales Take Off

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 Kindle first went on sale in November 2007 and demand was so great that it sold out in five and a half hours. It remained out of stock until 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”. In parallel with hardware development, Amazon continued to make greater numbers of book titles available in its Kindle store. 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. Sure, you can get books for your kindle elsewhere – but these might require translation, and why bother when the Kindle store has so many titles that you can download using 3G wireless connectivity in less than sixty seconds?

It’s also good news for all those third party manufacturers of Kindle accessories – a rapidly growing market. Originally Amazon shipped a cover with the Kindle, but this practice stopped when the Kindle 2 was released. Customers who have just spent $359 for their Kindle 2 or $489 for their DX probably have a reasonable discretionary spend budget and won’t think anything about spending another $20 – $40 on a cover to protect and customise their new toy. As with any portable device, it’s likely to have a few bumps and scrapes in normal use – so it makes sense to protect it as best you can?

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. As the Kindle is a fairly high ticket item most owners, will have some disposable income so it probably isn’t a huge surprise that they’re ready 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 grow, and as further new models are introduced, it seems likely that more and more independent suppliers will benefit from Amazon’s innovation.