Amazon Kindle is owning the category

This month marks the one year anniversary of the Amazon Kindle. According to Amazon, the adoption has been iPhone smashing numbers like they hoped, but it has done fairly well in a modest way.

What it has done is to bury the competition. Amazon doesn't need to worry about the modest numbers. They are all going up and they will keep going up. The Kindle is a winner. It is such a winner that the competition doesn't even know that race is over and Amazon won.

First, let's not talk about the product itself and its competition. If you want to do that kind of comparison you can visit Top 5 e-book readers compared

Here are the names of the top ebook readers currently on the market:

ECTACO-Jetbook
Amazon Kindle
Sony 505 Digital Reader
Sony 500 Digital Reader
Franklin EBookMan EBM 9-11

Now, how many of these had you ever heard of other than the Kindle?

Kindle hasn't sold a lot of devices. Even with massive marketing effort. But that is okay. Because they really have sold the device to most everyone who is going to buy an ebook reader. They have sold it to people who haven't bought it yet.

When a person reaches a point where they are comfortable with the idea of using an ebook, do you think they are going to go to their spouse and say...

"Honey, I'd love to have a Sony 505 Digital Reader"

I don't think so. You can't remember that. But I have had a lot of people tell me that they are thinking of a Kindle, and then when I show them mine, they are now convinced they need to buy one.

Disruptions take time

The Kindle is a massive disruption to the traditional book. People take time to adjust to such a radical shift from what they are used to. And ebook readers in the past have been poorly received, so the category as a whole is looked at with suspicion.

But as that suspicion fades over time, Amazon Kindle is already in the minds of the potential customers. They have already bought it in their mind without even realizing it.

Amazon got it right and now dominates the mindshare of this category. Only time is needed for them to dominate it with sales as well.