This has been a really important year for e-book readers, thanks largely to the work of Amazon. The Kindle 2 - an improved and upgraded version of Amazon's original Kindle - was released in February 2009.
A few short months later, Amazon launched the large format Kindle DX reader. This was targeted at readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks - and it caused a bit of a stir.
The academic establishment immediately saw the potential - from textbooks with interactive modes, to constantly updated text - and the potential to save money was certainly there as well. Amazon, in addition to entering into partnership agreements with a number of colleges and universities, got a high level of free publicity from the political scene. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his role as Governor of California, and the New Democratic Leadership Council - which numbers Hillary Clinton among its members - both waxed lyrical about the opportunities afforded by digital textbooks in general and the Kindle in particular.
The reward for Amazon's innovation - admittedly helped by a lot of buzz and free publicity - was that the Kindle, in a very short space of time, became Amazon's best selling product - bar none. Right now, the Kindle enjoys a staggering 60% share of the U.S. e-book market and Amazon have very recently gone global with their Kindle International.
It's probably worth remembering that Amazon were, in fact, a somewhat tardy entrant to the e-book reader market. The Franklin eBookman is generally considered to be the original dedicated e-book reader, and this was launched ten years ago in'99. Sony's PRS reader was launched in 2007, in advance of the launch of the original Kindle.
Amazon, although not first to market, combined clever marketing with technical innovation and a strong focus on customer needs and achieved the dominant position in the e-book reader market. Features such as the large number of books available for download to the Kindle (currently 360,000 and growing every day) and wireless connectivity were just as critical to the Kindle's success as technical functionality.
Now that Amazon has developed the market - almost single handedly it seems - it looks like there are plenty of other manufacturers who want their share. Sony, Asus, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Microsoft - the list goes on - all have readers ready for launch or in the final stages of development.
Amazon's current unique selling point - wireless connectivity - will soon become standard and users of Barnes and Noble's new Nook reader will be able to choose from over 1,000,000 titles on Barnes and Noble's website. The new Daily Edition reader from Sony will let users borrow books from participating lending libraries. In 2010, there will probably be some convergence on a standard e-book format which will allow users to lend e-books to friends and family or transfer them over to other e-book readers should they so wish.
Many business analysts are checking out the list of new readers and trying to identify which one is the "Kindle Killer". The competition is certainly impressive - but it would be foolish to imagine that Amazon will sit on their hands while their e-book reader crown is removed. Amazon almost certainly has further plans for the development of the Kindle. In fact, it might be that the Kindle 4 will be the Kindle Killer and that we could see this next launch in 2010.
Check out the Amazon Kindle ebook reader #1, and view the full range of Amazon Kindle accessories available.
categories: e-book readers, gadgets, electronics, gifts, technology, mobile computing, ebooks
