Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the online retail giant, has recently lowered the price of the Kindle, Amazon’s hand held electronic reading device.
Amazon is offering its latest version, the Kindle 2, for $189 and offers free shipping as well. Since the inception of the Kindle 1, many other companies have introduced their own versions of e-book readers. This has increased competition significantly. A few of the hand held e-book readers now competing with Amazon’s Kindle are listed below:
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPad also functions as a digital book reader. Coupled with its LCD screen and internet surfing abilities, as well as doubling as a hand held e-book reader, the iPad has been a huge success for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Sony (NYSE: SNE) also has a device of its own, the Daily Edition electronic book reader. The Sony (NYSE: SNE) Daily Edition device allows for instant downloads of books using infrastructure provided by AT&T (NYSE: T).
Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) released the NOOK. It also offers Wi-Fi and will connect to any AT&T (NYSE: T) hot spot. You can even carry the NOOK into a Barnes & Noble bookstore to download content.
With its Whispernet technology, the Kindle is also able to download content wirelessly. Although sales of the Kindle have been declining due to stiff competition from other companies, Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) decision to reduce the price of the Kindle may once again put it into the forefront of hand held electronic book reader sales.