Amazon Predictions For 2012

Amazon. As far as the book industry goes, not so much the elephant in the room as an entire herd of rampaging elephants running around the room, eating all the peanuts and leaving everyone else cowering in the corners desperately hoping not to get trampled.

This year has seen plenty of confident moves from the world's biggest online bookseller and leading e-reader manufacturer, including:

• a series of new Kindles, one of them described as an "iPad killer"

• an Amazon app store

• the controversial Kindle Lending Library

• strong lobbying against state sales taxes

• their own Cloud Drive

• new own-label imprints including some big-name signings

• and a Price Check app, pushed through an offer to encourage shoppers to enter stores, examine products and then buy them online.

A big year, then. So what could 2012 have in store for the Seattle-based giant?

Today we received our crystal ball (via FREE Super Saver Shipping naturally), to help us predict a few Amazon-related headlines we might be running over the next twelve months. Tomorrow, we'll take a close look at some of 2012's potential Kindle news stories.

Click below to see how very different the publishing world might be in 12 months time, and let us know your own Amazon headlines for 2012 in the comments. Whatever actually happens, we have a feeling it's going to be a big year.