Whilst it seems certain that the release of the Apple iPad has impacted upon sales of Amazon’s Kindle reader, the internet retail giant doesn’t appear to be unduly worried. In the wake of further price reductions and an upgrade, the 6″ version of the Kindle has sold out. New supplies will not start shipping for several weeks. The larger Kindle DX model is still available at this time.

The newest Kindle version sees the physical size of the unit shrink by 21% (whilst still maintaining the same display size), a weight reduction of 15% and faster page turns. The memory size has been doubled, which means that you can now carry your own mini library of 3,500 Kindle books around with you. A battery life of up to one month (with the Wi-Fi off) and a new, high contrast display means that the Kindle is the perfect device for reading – at home or on the road.

Customers can now pick either graphite or white body colors and the standard unit comes with both Wi-Fi and free 3G connectivity. Users who don’t anticipate the need to use 3G connections can now opt for a cheaper, Wi-Fi only, version of theKindle.

Amazon will also be marketing the Kindle directly from some of its international sites – starting in the UK. UK consumers can now buy their Kindle direct from Amazon UK rather than having it shipped from the USA. A dedicated UK Kindle book store will be set up, and no doubt similar arrangements can be anticipated for France and Germany in future.

Amazon recently announced that Kindle books were outselling hard cover versions on their US website . During July of 2010, Amazon sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 traditional hardback editions. They are quite confident that the future of reading is going to be digital – and the figures do seem to suggest that this is a distin ct possibility. E-book readers are, on a commercial basis at least, a fairly new development. Based upon these figures, the reading public seems to have got used to them fairly quickly.

Recently, e-book reader prices have reduced by a long way. The latest Kindle with 3G and Wi-Fi has a price of $ 189, which is significantly less than the $ 359 February 2009 launch price of the Kindle 2.0. With a price tag of just $ 139, the Wi-Fi only option reader is getting into mp3 player territory. These prices levels may, or may not, have been forced downwards by the release of Apple’s iPad – but the hardware price was always going to fall, and further reductions may be possible.

Whilst the cost of e-book reader hardware has been falling, the cost of the e-books themselves seems to have been edging upwards. This gives Amazon a very real competitive advantage over many of its competitors who are mainly interested in hardware manufacture and marketing. Amazon’s massive library of Kindle books is a tremendous asset for them – as is the fact that they have made so many Kindle “apps” available which allow Kindle books to be read on a variety of other devices. As the still developing e-book market matures and greater emphasis is placed on e-books as opposed to the hardware to read them on, Amazon appear to be very well placed to continue as the dominant player in the new electronic publishing world.