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E-book readers have been quite the hot gadget for a fair while now. In 2009 the e-book reader market really exploded, prompted in large part by the release of the Amazon Kindle 2.0 in February of that year. Amazon followed up with the release of their Kindle DX large display model in the summer of 2009 and, in the last six months of the year, it seemed as if electronics manufacturers were getting in line to launch e-book readers of their own in order to secure a share of the new market. The fact that almost every new reader which showed any promise was instantly given the title of the “Kindle Killer” is a clear indication of just how important Amazon were to the market’s development. The Kindle reader was, without a doubt, the industry standard that required to be matched and then beaten.

However, there was no sign of any reader which was about to knock the Kindle off the number one spot. Until the release of the Apple iPad - a completely different type of device - there really was no credible threat to the Kindle. Even then, the widely predicted demise of the Kindle as consumers turned en masse to the iPad doesn’t seem to have materialised. Following the launch of the newly enhanced Kindle 3 in August 2010 Amazon, for the umpteenth time it seems, was out of stock of the devices and potential customers faced a wait of several weeks before their new readers could be shipped.

There can’t be much doubt that the Kindle’s high sales figures can, to some extent, be explained by the fact that the latest upgrades were also accompanied by a price reduction. Amazon’s new Wi-Fi only Kindle was priced at just $ 139. Considering that the Kindle 2.0 launch price was $ 359 in February of 2009, that’s a hefty price reduction. It takes the Kindle – and e-book readers in general – much nearer to the sub $ 100 impulse buying price range for personal electronic devices. It’s debatable whether or not the iPad’s release prompted this. Not only would the price reduction would have happened anyway, but there is still a lot of room for downward price adjustment – and probably in the not too distant future.

Amazon and Apple may be enjoying a good deal of success, but the same cannot be said for other e-book reader manufacturers. A number of planned e-book readers have either been delayed or cancelled all together. The Plastic Logic Que reader, for example, is pretty well dead in the water. Dutch company Irex, a previously well established business, has gone bankrupt after disappointing US sales of their Irex reader. Sprint and Hearst’s planned Skiff has been cancelled.

Could we be heading towards a strongly polarised market in which Amazon dominate the low cost “pure” e-book reader sector and Apple clean up in the pricier tablet computer that also serves as an e-book reader market? There’s a large gap in the prices of the Kindle and the iPad. Is there room between the two devices, in terms of both price and specification levels, for other players to enter the market?

Amazon recently confirmed that sales of Kindle books are outstripping hardback sales. It doesn’t seem to outrageous to suggest that e-book sales may very well catch up with paperback sales - quite possibly in the fairly near future. It seems certain that e-books are going to be an important part in the future of reading, but just what type of device will you use to read them on?