Is Kindle Doomed?

When it comes to buying new gadgets, I always take a look at the companies behind them to find out whether these gadgets last a while. After all, you don’t want to adopt a gadget only to find out the company behind it is going bankrupt. In case of Amazon Kindle, you don’t have to think twice. Amazon is a solid company, and it would take some drastic conditions for Amazon to actually get in trouble. But Amazon Kindle has ignited a fire that even Amazon may not be able to put off. Amazon Kindle has had a lot of success in a market that was considered dead just a few years ago. Sony had tried to make money in the e-book industry for years, but it did not have the right business plan. Amazon did, and that has opened the eyes of many of its competitors. Sony, Google, Plastic Logic, Samsung, and many other companies are entering the market to grab a piece of the pie.

Amazon Kindle may be a great gadget but it’s facing a lot of competition and devices that are far more capable than an e-book reader. Take netbooks for example. These mini notebooks are not exactly e-book readers, but they can handle documents and they let you get your work done on the go as well. The same applies to Apple iPad. Apple iPad comes with the power of iTunes behind it, so there are going to be a lot of innovative applications available for it. The Kindle is facing so much competition that some are already questioning its future.

I firmly believe that Kindle is here to stay for a while, but I am not sure how long it can dominate the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple iPad surpassed what Kindle has done so far in a fairly short period of time. Besides, Kindle is still a one dimensional gadget, and one dimensional gadgets can’t dominate markets for long. Amazon needs to go all out with the next generation Kindle to secure the future of this great gadget. Nobody wants to buy a $400 gadget when you can get a netbook or other alternative devices for much less. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon added a lot of these features to Kindle in the near future. Amazon Kindle needs to become a multi-dimensional gadget in order to survive and grow. Otherwise, it will stay a niche gadget with a fairly low ceiling on its potential. The device is great for reading e-books, but the generation Z kids read less and want to accomplish a lot more than just reading books on their gadgets. If Amazon is to attract the generation Z, it needs to take action and do it fast.