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Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was launched in February and the large format DX followed shortly afterwards in June. The Kindle rapidly became Amazon’s number one selling product – even prior to the worldwide launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

By the end of 2009’s festive season, the Kindle had become Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. Of course, that was probably due to all those lucky people who had received a Kindle as a Christmas gift. In all probability, having opened their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, new owners would want to try out their new reader. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Even if some maintain that the method of realing this was just a little artificial then, when you think about it, that simply emphasises just what a good fit the Kindle is for Amazon’s business model.

Needless to say, Amazon’s competitors have been enviously eyeing their success and taking steps to ensure that they secure a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies who currently have e-book readers in development reads like a role call of consumer electronics giants. Sony, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft are just a few of the competitors who will be slugging it out with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.

A lot of the next generation readers will have features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look somewhat dated. Touch screen controls, color displays and an industry standard e-book format which will allow users to lend e-books to friends and family or even to borrow books from participating lending libraries are just a few of the features which users can look forward to.

You can be sure that Amazon will not rest on its laurels while their competition enters the market which Amazon has worked so hard to develop. The present Kindles, although innovative only a few months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the near future. Amazon probably already has their next generation Kindle under development (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon will be anticipating further success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.

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At the moment there are an incredible number of manufacturers fighting it out in the emerging, but rapidly growing, e-book reader market. The competition level is a clear signal that high growth is predicted in this sector. And this strong competition is going to be good for consumers as manufacturers fall over themselves to improve specifications and offer lower prices.

There is an impressive list of major manufacturers with e-book readers in various stages of development – and in some cases, ready for imminent release. Sony, Asus, iRex, Plastic Logic, Barnes and Noble – not to mention Microsoft and Apple – are all lined up and jostling for their share of the market.

There’s not much doubt about the dominant player in the market at the moment. The Amazon Kindle reader has not only dominated the market, but has been pivotal in its development since it was launched in November 2007. Now into its second iteration with the Kindle 2 and the large screen Kindle DX, Amazon has secured a 60% share of the American e-book reader market. The Kindle reader is now their number one product and, on October 19 this year, after what seemed like a long wait, they started shipping the international Kindle 2 to over 100 countries worldwide. When you think about it, iIt’s a backhanded compliment to Amazon that every new e-book reader in development (and theres no shortage of these, the list above is hardly exhaustive) and which shows any promise whatsoever, is immediately dubbed the “Kindle Killer”. At the moment the Kindle is the standard which must first be matched, and then exceeded, in order to assure success.

Just in case anyone thinks that the Kindle’s current leadership position is bordering on unassailable, it’s probably worth remembering that Amazon were a late entrant to the market when the Kindle was launched. The very first dedicated e-book reader is generally considered to be the eBookMan by Franklin, which launched in 1999 – ten years ago. The Sony PRS was also released before the Kindle’s launch in 2007.

A variety of factors made the Kindle such a huge success for Amazon. First of all, Amazon had a strong association with books, being among the largest online retailers. They also offered a huge choice of books to download – at the moment they have in excess of 300,000 titles on their Kindle store. The wireless connectivity on offer – with no ongoing fees – was another major selling point.

However, just as Amazon came from nowhere to take the lead position, some of the other contenders could just as easily do the same. For example, Barnes and Noble have more than one million titles available for download to their new Nook e-book reader. They will also adopt the ePub format – which most readers under development seem to be using. Kindle’s format is proprietary. Buy a Kindle book – read it on your Kindle.

The Nook will also let you “lend” books to your family and friends for a fortnight. During this period, the borrower will be able to read it and the lender won’t have access to it on their Nook – just like lending a “proper” book actually. The only difference is that you will be guaranteed to get it back.

The latest Sony reader – the Sony Daily Edition – is going to have a large display format, just like the Kindle DX, but unlike the DX it will have touch screen control functionality. It will also allow users to download e-books from participating public libraries on loan. Again – just like a proper book.

The other readers in development all have a number of individual features that may make them more appealing to users than the Kindle. Amazon have a fight on their hands – and it seems sure that they won’t relinquish their top position without a fight. Given their innovating role in the development of the market thus far, and considering the importance of the Kindle ebook reader to their business, it seems reasonable to expect them to have a few new ideas yet to be unleashed.

Considering the high level of activity amongst all of the key manufacturers, it looks like the e-book reader market is about to start expanding even more rapidly. Hopefully the rampant competition that seems about to be unleashed will force prices downwards and take e-book readers out of the high tech domain and into mainstream personal mobile tech market.

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The first Amazon kindle ebook reader launched in November 2007. It sold out in five and a half hours and was then out of stock until April 2008. It’s probably reasonable to suppose that even Amazon was somewhat taken aback by the immediate success of the device.

The updated Amazon kindle 2 went on sale in late February of 2009 and it was widely believed to be a marked improvement on what was an already successful product. Included among a number of improvements were; improved battery life, faster page turning, a text-to-speech facility (it will read books to you) and space for around 1500 books in its onboard memory (albeit that the option to use a separate SD card, a design feature of the original kindle, was now removed).

A mere three months later, in May 2009, Amazon announced that its new Kindle DX would be shipping in June of this year. Most of the key features of the Kindle 2 are included in the DX, but it has a larger 9.7″ display, which includes automatic rotation from portrait to landscape mode. Also included, for the first time in the kindle range, is the ability to handle native pdf files without the need for translation.

The larger size of the kindle DX makes it ideally suited for reading magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks. A number of major newspapers announced – even before the DX went on sale – that they would offer discounted prices for the kindle to anyone signing up to annual subscriptions.

Amazon are keeping their cards pretty close to their chest – but it’s estimated that somewhere between $86 to $96 million of kindle reader sales were generated between November 2007 and August 2008. Don’t forget, that’s only for the reader itself – the sales of ebooks must be separately considered. Industry watchers are predicting that sales for the kindle (the reader device only) will reach $ 1.6 billion by 2012.

Excellenet business from Amazon’s point of view – and a very significant move away from only promoting other manufacturer’s goods to having their own product to put in front of the buying public. More importantly, whilst not exactly locked in, kindle customers will be heavily motivated to provide Amazon with a level of repeat business that most other vendors can only fantasise about.

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