Now that Apple iPad has been unveiled to the public, it is already ahead of its probable competitors with respect to time but Amazon, Sony, HP (although Slate showed up its glimpse at CES), are not at all ready to surrender in front of Apple’s latest creation.
At the moment, it’s easy to realize the plight of ebook reader manufacturers such as Amazon(kindle), Sony(Reader), Barnes&Noble(Nook), as the fate of their e-reader devices is endangered with the recent arrival of iPad and powerful tablet devices such as HP Slate.
It’s easy to foresee e-reader device sellers going out of business if upcoming generation of tablet devices(iPad, Slate), that actually includes e-reader functionality as one of the many functionalities, start selling to mass consumers.
Till now, there was no tablet from HP, Apple or anyone else and e-reader devices like Kindle was the only option for consumers to get a light-weight and handy device for reading ebooks on the run. Now that one can read ebooks and do a lot more stuff such as photos, videos, web and most of the computational tasks through iPad or Slate or any other available tablet, why would anyone buy a single purpose device such as Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.
Another fact is that the advent of tablet generation will soon result in multiple tie-ups with major book publishers and bestselling authors, which would mean that ebook retailers such as Amazon and Barnes&Noble will loose control over the territory that’s predominantly controlled by them(mainly Amazon) at the moment.
For Amazon, it is like surrendering their flourishing Kindle oriented business which Amazon will never let happen. So what can they really do ?
Amazon needs to compete head-on with Apple. Amazon needs to transform its single tasking Kindle to a touch-sensitive e-Ink/LCD Kindle that’s equally capable as iPad or HP Slate or any other tablet device out there.
And with recent buyout of a startup that specializes in touchscreen technology, Amazon seems to be in full swing to make its Kindle, a Super-Kindle.
Sony seems to be having similar plans for its e-Reader device as well, transforming it to a Super e-reader, basically a powerful tablet, nothing less.
For miscellaneous tablets like JooJoo , the scope of growth is next to nothing now.