Kindle is the name of an e-book reader produced by famous online retailer Amazon. The product’s first version was released in 2007, and since then Kindle’s popularity has only grown. What are the reasons behind this?

First of all, it should be noted that Amazon has enough marketing power to make virtually any product popular. Therefore, Kindle’s ever growing popularity shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone.

Another important factor lies in the natural association between Amazon and book shopping. Among the company’s customers, there are many individuals who regularly spend money with books, and a portion of these consumers is interested in e-books as well. Consequently, the release of a product like Kindle was an inevitable step.

Most individuals claim that they dislike reading e-books on their computers’ screens. Typical computer screens aren’t designed to make reading a comfortable activity, and they can’t be freely carried to other places. Kindle’s design comes as a great advantage though, because the device is small and its weight is light, ensuring full portability. The e-paper display addresses the comfort issue.

It might be argued that laptops can solve a reader’s portability issues. Nonetheless, laptops are bigger and heavier than Kindle. As a result, the comparison between such devices isn’t really appropriate.

With this increasing interest in green issues, Kindle has a special appeal for concerned consumers. They tend to favor e-books over their print counterparts because the former are environment-friendly, since companies don’t have to cut any trees to produce them. Consequently, green-oriented book buyers have all the more reasons to make use of Kindle.

The more books a consumer purchases, the more room he/she will need to store them all. Thanks to Kindle, this is no longer a problem. Readers can simply download the desired pieces from Amazon servers and store them on Kindle’s memory. No physical space is required, as the books are all digital in this case.

AZW is the name of Kindle’s own proprietary format and e-books sold by Amazon are released as AZW files. Nevertheless, consumers can also use Kindle to load content produced in plain text. Moreover, Amazon offers an e-mail service that allows Kindle users to convert files from various formats (HTML, PDF, DOC, among others) to AZW. Audio books and MP3 audio files can be transferred to Kindle as well.

It’s easy to understand why Kindle is so successful when its many advantages and features are analyzed. With the release of new and improved versions, Amazon will ensure that Kindle remains a highly sought-after e-book reading device.