In an effort to stay ahead in the growing field of electronic-book readers, Amazon.com is lowering the price of its Kindle and launching an international version, The Associated Press reported.
The Kindle now costs $259 after Wednesday’s $40 reduction. In 2007, it debuted at $399 and started this year at $359, before another price cut in July.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company could now afford to reduce the price because of the increased number of Kindles the company is making – and selling.
He called the Kindle Amazon’s best-selling product, but the company has not disclosed its sales figures.
The device sports a 6-inch screen that displays shades of gray, room to store 1,500 books and the ability to download books wirelessly.
Amazon is trying to maintain a lead in the nascent e-reader market by lowering the Kindles price in a time where the field is getting more and more crowded.
E-reader sales will likely total an estimated 3 million this year, with Amazon selling 60 percent of them and Sony Corp. selling 35 percent, according to a report being released Wednesday by Forrester.
Sony offers a $199 “Pocket Edition” e-reader and a larger $299 touch-screen model, and in December it will offer a $399 model that can wirelessly download books without the use of a computer.
Other companies like IREX Technologies plan to release a wireless-enabled $400 e-reader this fall, and Plastic Logic Ltd. intends to sell one with wireless capabilities as well.
E-books accounted for just 1.6 percent of all book sales in the first half of the year, according to the Association of American Publishers. However, the market is growing fast and e-book sales totaled $81.5 million in the first half, up from $29.8 million in the first six months of 2008.
Amazon sells 48 Kindle copies for every 100 physical copies of books that it offers in both formats, Bezos said. The company was selling 35 Kindle copies per 100 physical versions just five months ago.
He added that the increase is happening faster than expected.
Bezos said he believes Amazon will sell more books in Kindle editions than they do in physical editions.
Amazon will also start selling a $279 version of the Kindle that will work in 100 countries and be sold to readers outside the U.S., in hopes of stimulating even more growth. Australia, Japan, India and Germany will start receiving shipments of the Kindle on Monday.
As of now, the Kindle can wirelessly download content in the U.S. over Sprint Nextel Corp.’s network, but outside the country it must be connected to a computer with a USB cable to add content. Users will be able to wirelessly download content around the world over AT&T’s network, using the international version.
For $489, consumers can also purchase a larger version of the Kindle, the DX, which was released this past spring and is geared toward textbook and periodical reading.
The below $300 price tags on the U.S. and international Kindles could help Amazon this holiday season. The National Retail Federation is expecting this year’s gift-giving season to be sluggish, as it forecast this week that retail sales in November and December combined would fall 1 percent from 2008.
However, e-reader prices need to come down even more if the devices are going to become mainstream products, according to Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.
She suggested $99 as a price that would be much more likely to lure consumers.
“People have somewhat unrealistic expectations of how much consumer electronics in general, and e-readers in particular, should be,” she said.
E-readers have proven popular with readers and travelers who like the convenience of downloads and avoiding heavy books, but high prices have kept many potential users from purchasing them.
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