Amazon has had a great deal of success with its Kindle e-book reader family. It’s the number one selling product on Amazon’s website right now. The Kindle accounts for 60% of all American e-book reader sales and both the Kindle 2.0 and the large format Kindle DX are now on sale to customers in more than 100 countries worldwide – extending Amazon’s reach and growing their customer base enormously.

Right now,Sony are Amazon’s main competitor – trailing in second place but with a very respectable35% share of the American e-book reader market. However, there are a host of other companies who have watched the rapid growth of the e-book reader market and now want a piece of the action. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had a separate section for e-book readers for the first time ever. Over two dozen companies – some of them household names, others less well known – had e-book readers on display. This is a clear indication of the anticipated growth in this market segment.

However, what many of these e-book reader wannabes may be overlooking is the fact that the technical aspects of the hardware, as important as they are, are part of the big picture. The success which Amazon has enjoyed with the Kindle reader thus far has been due to diverse factors over and above its technical specification. Amazon is in an almost unique position which gives it several advantages which are important when it comes to marketing both e-book readers and the e-books to use on them.

, the largest book seller in the world – bar none. In the eyes of the buying public, it therefore enjoys a very strong association with books. It also has a a long history with consumer electronic devices – admittedly in the capacity of a merchant – but the association is there. Of course, the Kindle has now positioned Amazon as a manufacturer (although they subcontract the manufacture) in a big way.

The fact of the matter is that those manufacturers who imagine that they are going to steal Amazon’s crown just by producing a reader which has a few extra technical features than the Kindle, or is somehow “cooler”, are probably going to get an unpleasant surprise when the sales returns start rolling in. It will probably take another instantly recognisable household name who is both trusted and respected to make any significant impact on the scene now. Companies such as Microsoft or Apple would be prime contenders – and they both have their own readers, or devices which could be used to read e-books at least, under development. Sony now have a well established e-book reader pedigree, so they must consider themselves to be a contender.Barnes and Noble could also be a contender.

One thing’s for sure, no small electronics company is going to break Amazon’s stranglehold on the market. Partnerships, such as Plastic Logic’s agreement with Barnes and Noble, who will provide the books for the Que reader, might throw up a few surprises. All the same, unless there is a truly unforeseen development in the offing, it seems as if the Kindle reader really is set to become the literary world’s equivalent of the iPod.

Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the sales results for its Kindle reader family duringin 2009. February saw the launch of the Kindle 2.0 and the DX followed just a little later in June. The Kindle very rapidly achieved the position of Amazon’s top selling product – even before the worldwide launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

In the course of the 2009 festive season, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day 2009, more Kindle books were sold than traditional paperbacks and hardbacks combined. In all probability that would have been due to all those lucky people who had woken up to find a Kindle in their stocking on Christmas morning. It seems reasonable to suppose that, having unwrapped their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, proud new Kindle owners would wish to test their new toy. In all probability that would have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Even so, for Kindle books to outsell traditional paper books is still a significant milestone. If some feel that the method of achieving this was a little artificial then maybe that simply emphasises Amazon’s business model.

Of course Amazon’s competition have been closely monitoring their success and taking steps to ensure that they secure a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers under development reads like a role call of consumer electronics giants. Apple, Sony, Samsung and Microsoft are just a few of the manufacturers who will be taking on Amazon in 2010. And let’s not forget Barnes and Noble who have now released their own Nook e-book reader.

A lot of the next generation readers will incorporate features which will make the Kindle, at least in its present format,appear somewhat out of date. Touch screen controls, color displays and an industry standard e-book format which will permitusers to lend e-books to family and friends or even to borrow books from participating digital libraries are just a few of the features which users can expect in the near future.

One thing’s for sure, Amazon will not stand and watch whilst their competitors muscle in on the market which Amazon has been so instrumental in developing. The present iteration of the Kindles, as innovative as they were just a few short months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the (very) near future. Amazon is probably already working on their next generation Kindle (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon will be anticipating further success in 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010. In the meantime expect Amazon to continue to increase the selection of Kindle books available on its Kindle store – so users will have the ideal marriage of hardware and software.

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