At the moment, Amazon is enjoying tremendous success with its new, third generation Kindle reader. An upgrade – which includes a new display with 50% better contrast, lighter and smaller casing, quicker page turns and double the memory capacity – accompanied by a reduction in price and the introduction of an entry level Wi-Fi only model, has seen demand for the Kindle reader soar.

At the moment, the third generation Kindles are sold out and potential customers face a wait of three to four weeks before any new ones start shipping. Kindle books are also outselling traditional hardback editions on a regular basis. It can only be a matter of time before e-books begin to sell more than paperbacks.

Amazon has also launched a dedicated UK Kindle store so that UK customers don’t require to have their readers shipped across the Atlantic and can pay for their Kindle purchases in sterling rather than dollars. It seems probable that further “local” Kindle stores will be opened for other Amazon international websites such as Germany, France etc. in the relatively near future.

Currently, everything in the garden is rosy for Amazon. Reports of the Kindle’s demise at the hands of Apple’s iPad seem to be premature and largely inaccurate. The Amazon policy of releasing free “apps” which allow Kindle books to be read on a wide variety of different devices seems to be paying dividends. So, considering what a massive success they have enjoyed with their first manufactured product, it’s hardly surprising that Amazon is rumored to be considering developing prototypes for personal tech gadgets other than the Kindle in their Lab 126 research facility.

Although Amazon has been tight-lipped on the subject, it’s thought that they may be thinking about music/movie players and possibly some kind of mobile phone. However, industry analysts suggest that, were Amazon to enter the market with another gadget, they would need to be sure that they were adding value rather than just releasing another piece of personal electronic tech onto the market.

Much of the success of the Kindle reader must be attributed to Amazon’s strong association with books and reading in general. The huge number of Kindle books available – over 630,000 and increasing every day – and the fact that these can be read on so many other devices has been a real feather in Amazon’s cap. Any new gadget that Amazon decided to release would certainly need some similar type of support in order to achieve anything approaching the level of the Kindle’s success.