For the most part, the Kindle DX is still not a fully there product; within the last 45 days, Barnes and Noble has appeared as a new contender for the e-book marketplace, and Sony has not only decided to drop their prices down to $9.99, but also to support the ePub format. These are all potential market factors that will make a big difference in the fight ahead. The ePub standard is a file format that is a free and open standard, which has the ability for DRM; Amazon Kindles can read ePub files, but the content from Amazon's store is in their own proprietary AZW format. Amazon in effect has made it easy to read other digital book file formats on the Kindle, but not made it easier for the competitors readers to purchase books from their bookstore. This approach is very similar to the initial iTunes store; as long as the users had the device or the software, the content would work; break away from the device and software, and the content wouldn't work. The difference here is that Amazon is just a website; there is no Amazon e-reader software available for the computer, and thus, the point of entry for most people to the e-reader experience is by taking the plunge and purchasing an e-reader device. While Amazon has a selection of free books; it took me less time that you would think for me to break down and purchase a digital book from the Amazon store.
On day one, I didn't really explore the resources available for e-books; in fact, the Kindle DX reads a great deal of formats, and a great many resources make their works available in formats the Kindle DX is capable of reading. While some of these sites are pay-to-download, a large number of them are free. I have also discovered that being able to read PDFs on the Kindle DX is a great thing; while the screen of the DX is smaller than a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, it's about the right size for reading PDF files; while the support for PDF isn't completely there in that it only zooms once, it will allow search and some other limited functionalities; enough that I've been making my own PDFs to read on the Kindle DX.
For any one e-reader to succeed, the price of the e-readers needs to hit about half the cost as it is currently; a price of around $200-$250 is probably the sweet spot where the consumer would be more open to purchasing a black and white device, and in fact with all the competition entering into the market, it is no surprise that Amazon recently dropped the price of the Kindle 2 down to $299. Part of the problem is that the e-books are still too expensive for the average consumer; the average e-book has a cost between $7-15 dollars, which still seems like a lot of money for something that is merely digital bits, and digital property has little value to those outside of games. The solution here, then, would be for Amazon to simultaneous drop the price of the reader and the e-books; the goal at this point should to grow the market, and move beyond the early adopter/techno-savvy user stage and move into the mainstream.
Because the Kindle uses Sprint 3G, and the user never pays for it, in some ways the Kindle has a much lower total cost in ownership than an iPhone.
Of course, on top of that are the rumors of the Apple iTablet, which may turn out to be the giant iPod touch that ends up winning the e-reader market because it can do more than read e-books.
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