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Published : Saturday, 22 April, 2017 09:15 AM

Brand Marquee - Kindle

Management Gurus have always opined that Brand will be born and dying during Brand life cycles and will need push for their sustainability.

In the era of technological innovations, the physical world is being appropriated by the virtual or the electronic world. Little wonder then, that the way we read, has also a gone a huge transformation in this decade. The word ‘digital’ has truly become enshrined in the fabric of today’s world and the way we read and possess information has also changed accordingly. In this context, the most path-breaking invention, which has changed reading, has been the Amazon Kindle, a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon.com.

The First Kindle

Amazon launched the first Kindle e-reader in 2007. It proved to be a game-changer and revolutionised reading and made it more attractive, especially for youngsters. Priced at $399, it sold out in five-and-a-half hours, and featured a 6-inch display with 250MB of internal storage. Though big and bulky, it was a runaway success.  

Branding

The ‘Kindle’ name was suggested by branding consultants Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma. The word means, ‘to light a fire’. They felt this was an apt metaphor for reading and intellectual excitement.

Benefits

The most significant advantage of the Kindle is that it provides readers the convenient to read whatever they want, wherever they what, whenever they want. It allows users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. In a single device that can even fit into one’s pocket or bag, one can carry several thousand books at any particular time and read as per one’s convenience.

Disadvantages

One of the disadvantages of e-readers is that they take you away from books. People who swear by books will tell how important and beautiful it is to get the feel of flipping the pages of a book in your hand and kindle can never replace a book in that sense. Kindle might be hard to handle for people who dislike smartphones or computers. There are so many book available on Kindle that one might end up buying more books than one ever needs or will read. This might run up a huge bill for the user. Also, while a book has a long shelf-life, as long as you keep it nicely, Kindle is an electric item and like all electric item is bound to get damaged.

Products

The first Kindle was followed by the second generation model, with internal storage of 2MB in 2009. Kindle DX followed in 2009, with a 9.7 inch screen. The first touchscreen Kindle appeared in 2011 called Kindle Touch. In all, till now, eight generations of Kindle have been launched by Amazon improving on the features of the previous devices.

Kindle has indeed revolutionised the way people thought about books and reading. By making books available at the click of a button and the flexibility of carrying several books with you for reading, it has brought in new people towards reading, especially the youngsters who are tech savvy.

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