Saturday 5 November 2011

Where Can I Buy A Kindle


Where Can I Buy A Kindle
"I want an eReader."   "Where Can I Buy A Kindle?" I hear you ask.  Hold on! Just wait a minute.  Firstly, what is a Kindle device?  Well, the word 'Kindle' is said to be from the Middle English word, kindlen, which stems from an Old Norse word, kynda, meaning kindle and, for completeness, the term 'kindle' means to "become lit up, bright, or glowing, as the sky at dawn or the eyes with ardour," as stated generally in dictionary terms.

How perfect is the product title, Kindle, as it highlights one component/example of an exploding network of ICT development! The Kindle referred to in this blog is Amazon's Kindle product, developed by Lab126 Inc, a small California-based subsidiary of Amazon.com.   Lab126 Inc. is known for its tight focus on developing easy-to-use, highly integrated consumer products. 

The evolution of ebooks has opened up a broad range of opportunities, both good and bad. As the ebook market is still in its infancy in many ways there are still many refinements to be made such as those relating to the prevention of piracy and other black market activities. With such technology as ebooks, authors are now able to self-publish. Ebooks appear to be another user-friendly tool that aids self-expression and individual entrepreneurship, qualities which we all seemingly find deceptively attractive and qualities which savvy digital marketers are adding to their arsenal of marketing strategies. The ebook revolution is largely driven by innovative business models that have tapped into a very hungry content-based market, the content of which is now being made much more accessible to all consumers by the exploding advancement in Ict and related platforms.

The Kindle has a solid grip on the market with Amazon earlier this year publicly advising Kindle books are outselling their printed books, a fact that has given Amazon its largest yearly growth in a decade. Since 19 November 2007 when Kindle was first released, it has steadily positioned itself as a serious player in the world of books, a fact not lost on many traditional book stores and publishing houses. In this year alone (2011) the proliferation of ebook readers and the growing market share of Barnes & Noble illustrate important developments in the book/publishing industry, as does, for example, the selling of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" ebooks online, not to mention the promotion of self-published writer, Amanda Hocking, from self-made author to now being signed with a traditional book publishing house. Ereaders and related applications certainly appear to be the flavour of the month at present with overwhelming consumer feedback indicating their reading preferences are increasingly in favour of turning pages electronically, be it via home computers, laptops, eBook readers, or even iPads, iPhones, Androids, or smart phones, rather than reading books the traditional way. Convenience is a huge selling point!

Take a look at this video and see how easy it is to download books to your Kindle. The video explains downloading library books.




When one takes a broad look at digital technology it becomes perhaps more obvious why books/publishing have been drawn into the same network of technological advancement that has seen both music and video drawn to the digital marketplace. Traditionally, securing a publishing house deal was the goal for aspiring authors. Today, writers can publish their own creations online in digital form and potentially receive greater royalties than via traditional means, although online distribution requires a very tightly focused strategy to ensure optimisation of online content so as to attract potential buyers. Data gleaned from the Association of American Publishers provides a clearer picture as to the extent of the eReader revolution with ebook profits reaching approximately $450 million in 2010 while printed books maintained a plateau of growth that significantly paled in comparison to its trendier sibling. Casualties of the digital book revolution include newspaper businesses and book retailers unable to adapt to keep pace with the increasing accessibility and convenience of digital media.

Brick-and-mortar book retailers pretty much controlled book retail until relatively recently when Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other Internet retailers entered the scene late in the 20th Century (1990s). Resultantly, we are riding the next set of waves with the creation of such products as ebooks (digital books) and eBook readers (eReaders).  I'm sure Where Can I Buy A Kindleis a question traditional bookstores and publishing houses never would have thought they'd hear being asked in such loud resounding tones as those which currently echo throughout the canyons of the digital world!   So, Where Can I Buy A Kindle?  Well, there are terrific year-end deals to be had online at the moment, particularly with Kindle 4 (2011).  Go on!  The best deals are only online.  Enter the World Of Kindle and see how it impacts the 'enjoyment levels' of your day!  Enjoy!

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