I have said many times here that computing is moving to specialized devices, such as the Garmin GPS, the iPod and the Kindle. The iPad may be another example, serving the "Internet for Dummies" market or more politely people that want to use their computers basically for Internet, music, watching video and chat. The iPad offers a book reader but the further development of this feature (application) will not likely drive the sale of iPads. Therefore, I do not see the iPad book reader evolving much and therein lies the future opportunity for the Kindle and other book readers.
Books have evolved little since the time of the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg. Much as computing has spurred innovation in education, e-books have many opportunities for enhanced features. An example of this opportunity is demonstrated by the Kno, which is an e-book reader targeting the text book market. I expect that the Kindle will continue to add new features based on its wireless connectivity to provide additional reference sources beyond a dictionary and links to Wikipedia. Recently the Kindle added a new sharing feature and I hope that soon I can save excerpts of books to Evernote. When the Kindle starts to propose other articles, books or lectures on the subject of a paragraph based on semantic search, we will be closer to where I see e-book readers going.
The following statistics from Amazon show the robustness of the e-book market, which bodes well for the further evolution of the feature set in the Kindle and other book readers.
You will notice in the data above that my new book, Billion Dollar Company, has not yet sold 500,000 copies as an e-book. The simple reason must be that it is not yet available on the Kindle. If you click through to the Amazon link, read the book review and please click on the button to ask the publisher for a Kindle version. A complete website for the book will be available next week and will be announced here.
