In March 2010, the Nook surpassed the Kindle in sales. So much for all of that hype around the iPad being such a fierce competitor for the Kindle. The Nook is Barnes and Noble’s e-reader that includes a selection of over a million titles from Barnes and Noble, as well as books from outside resources such as Google Books. It was launched at the end of November, 2009 with fantastic sales. Such early competition from the Nook is surprising considering that the initial release was flawed. Shipments were delayed and the reviews at the launch were mixed. There were reports of viruses in the e-book downloads.
Apparently, the kinks from the initial launch have largely been ironed out. According to an article from Digital Trends, out of the 1.43 million e-book readers shipped, 53% were Nooks. This is good news for both the Nook and Kindle, because it means that the e-book reader market is really taking off on a global scale. The Kindle still holds its status as the veteran of the e-book reader market. E-book reader sales are projected to quadruple from 2009 to 2010, from 3 million to 11 million. Threatened by competition from the Nook and the iPad will hopefully push Amazon to make changes suggested by users and experts to the Kindle, such as price cuts and faster screen reaction times.
A big question is whether the Kindle, Nook and iPad will target different sections of the market or whether they will all be vying for the same group of people in the long run. Either way, competition is heating up and the makers of e-book readers will be on their toes.
Uh…you might want to check your sources again. The articles are talking about shipments to the retailer, not consumer sales. We still have no idea how many Kindles are being sold each month, and just because the manufacturers in China sent more units to B&N in March doesn’t mean that it’s selling better. It just means they ordered more in March. Given that the K2 has been out for far longer I would expect Amazon to maintain their inventory better and at lower levels.