Blog Post#6- EOTO Amazon Kindle

Technology evolves every day and our world keeps becoming more advanced. In order for technology to evolve it had to start from somewhere. Inventions like electricity, the phone, the radio, television, and computers were significant inventions that led to so much more than anyone could have envisioned. As technology became more sophisticated inventors started to turn the computer into handheld devices or tablets. One handheld device that changed the way people read was the Amazon Kindle.

The Amazon Kindle was one of the first series of e-readers to hit the market. They had one goal; to bring people books. The first model launched in 2007 and it sold out within 5 hours. The first model gave access to over 90,000 digital books through the Amazon Kindle Store. The price of the Kindle was around four hundred dollars and on average the books available cost around fifteen dollars. Amazon named it “Kindle” because of their branding consultant at the time,  Michael Cronon. Cronan “suggested Kindle, meaning to light a fire. They felt this was an apt metaphor for reading and intellectual excitement".

Amazon quickly elevated the Kindle to be much more than just an e-reader. Every one to two years Amazon came out with a new version of the Kindle. As the new models developed the number of digital books available grew enormously. Now, the Kindle has over three million books available to the consumer. Although the availability of books grew, the pricing still remains around three hundred dollars. In 2019 Amazon even released an “Amazon Kindle Kids Edition” which is specifically made for younger children to enjoy. In a study by Pew Research Center “E-book readers in the United States in 2018, by age”  the largest number of E-book readers are in the age range of 18-29.

The Amazon Kindle was revolutionary by being the first company to have a mass consumption of affordable e-readers. The evolution of the Kindle has also changed the relationship between publishers and authors. Kindle has such a wide variety of books because they have the “Kindle Direct Publishing Service."Which allows for authors to publish their own literary work. This means that authors no longer have to send their work out to multiple publishing houses to get rejected. This allows for many new books to be published every day through Amazon’s bookstore.

The Kindle has made many positive changes to e-reader technology. They allow anyone to read from anywhere. Although they have made many positive changes by bringing people affordable books, I do see some downfalls to our society. The Amazon Kindle is not helping the tremendous decline of bookstores. Many studies have also been proven that retention and concentration are hindered when reading from a tablet. Many people report straining their eyes from reading on the Kindle.

Overall, the Kindle’s positive contributions to our society outweigh the negative side effects. The Kindle really revolutionized the way that society reads books now. They made it possible for millions of people to have access to affordable books. They have also made it possible for the fast publishing of new literary works from all genres. The kindle proves to be a widely used source of education and entertainment in our society.

Amazon Kindle Information