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The organisers of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, being held in Las Vegas have, for the first time ever set aside a dedicated area for e-book readers. Not without some justification – there are at least two dozen different manufacturers displaying e-book readers at the event.

The heightened level of interest, both from the public and from electronics manufacturers is perfectly understandable. After all, 2009 was a very successful year for e-book readers. All the signs are that 2010 will be even better.

There’s little doubt that a great deal of the credit for this heightened awareness of e-book readers in 2009 should be given to Amazon’s Kindle reader. The Kindle 2.0 launch in February, swiftly backed up by the launch of the larger DX version in June, generated a great deal of good press for e-book readers in general and for the Kindle in particular.

The Kindle quickly became the top selling product on Amazon and, over the 2009 Christmas period, the Kindle became the most gifted item on Amazon. Sales of Kindle books made up 35% of all book sales (where a Kindle edition existed). For the first time ever, on Xmas day 2009, Amazon sold more Kindle books than hardback and paperback conventional books.

Public demand, both for e-book readers and the e-books to read on them had been firmly established and now looks likely to enter a period of exponential growth.At the moment, Amazon has 60% of the American market and Sony has 35%. Obviously there are plenty of other manufacturers who want to establish a presence in this market. On the face of it, they will have a difficult time considering Amazon’s dominance – but the market is very new and changing and developing at breakneck speed. Rapid expansion seems very likely in the short term and the right product at the right time could rewrite the rules in an instant.

Apart from electronics manufacturers, there are other parties who have a vested interest in the growth and development of the e-book reader market. Third party manufacturers who make a variety of accessories – reading lights (e-book readers are not back-lit),chargers, covers, screen protectors etc. – also stand to benefit from a market that, as little as a year ago, simply did not exist. At the moment, Kindle accessories are, understandably, the most common, but as new readers begin to increase their volume of sales these will, almost certainly, also be catered for.

2010 will be a big year both for e-books and e-book readers. Next year’s Consumer Electronics shows will certainly incorporate a separate e-book reader section – but it may be considerably larger in size in comparison with 2010.