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This has been a big year for e-book readers – largely due to the efforts of Amazon. Amazon unveiled the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an improved and enhanced version of the original Kindle which was released in November 2007.

In June of 2009, Amazon followed up with the Kindle DX, which was a large display version of the Kindle 2. It was specifically targeted at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks – and it caused quite a commotion.

The possibilities for academic use – from interactive textbooks to constantly updated texts, and not overlooking the opportunity for academic bodies to save a good deal of money – attracted a lot of attention. As well as entering into agreements with a number of colleges and universities, Amazon got a lot of free publicity from political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his capacity as Governor of California.

Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and determination – aided by all the free publicity – the Amazon Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s top selling product.Right now, the Kindle has an incredible 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently launched an international version. The Kindle has now grown to be virtually a byword for e-book readers.

It’s probably worth remembering that Amazon were, in fact, a late entrant to the e-book reader market. The first e-book reader, the Franklin eBookman, was launched in 1999 – a decade ago. The Sony PRS reader was launched in 2007, before the launch of the original Kindle.

Amazon might been late to market – but by a combination of marketing, technical innovation and responsiveness to customer needs, Amazon has reached its current dominant position. The huge choice of ebooks available for the Kindle on Amazon’s website and the wireless connectivity (with no monthly fee) were every bit as crucial to the Kindle’s success as were the technical aspects of the device.

However, now that Amazon has – almost single handedly – developed the market, it seems that manufacturers of consumer electronics want their share. Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Barnes and Noble, iRex, Plastic Logic, Asus – the list continues – all have their own devices ready for launch or in the late stages of development.

Wireless connectivity, presently one of Amazon’s strong selling points, will become normal and Barnes and Noble will offer users of their new Nook reader more than 1,000,000 titles to choose from.Sony’s new Daily Edition reader will permit users to borrow books on loan from participating lending libraries. Meanwhile, there will most likely be a standard e-book format agreed in 2010, which will allow users to lend e-books to family and friends or port them across to other readers if they wish.

Currently, a lot of industry insiders are checking out the line up of new readers and attempting to guess which one is the Kindle Killer. However, Amazon has been very astute thus far and they won’t surrender their top position without a fight. It took them under eighteen months following the launch of the first Kindle to launch the hugely improved Kindle 2. The DX followed just a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has some ideas for the future development of their Kindle family. Could it be that the Kindle killer will turn out to be the Kindle 4 and that we could see this sometime in 2010?

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Tags: Amazon Kindle, ebook readers, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, Kindle reader