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The recent surge in the popularity of both e-books and e-book readers has been heavily influenced by Amazon. The Amazon Kindle reader first appeared on the market during November of 2006 and further updates followed with the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009 and the launch of the third generation Kindle in August 2010. The summer of 2009 also saw the launch of the large format Kindle DX, which was also updated in August 2010.

Many industry watchers predicted that, despite Amazon’s pivotal role in the development of the e-book reader market, the launch of the versatile Apple iPad would effectively sound the death knell for the Kindle. However, after the launch of the third generation Kindle - accompanied by a reduction in the retail price - Amazon has sold out of their readers again. It seems that consumer demand is still extremely high for Amazon’s top selling product.

Many readers have warmed to e-books quite rapidly. Others have formed an attachment to physical books. However, for the majority of people the convenience of being able to carry large quantities of reading material around with them, coupled with the ease of operation offered by e-book readers, has turned out to be an attractive proposition. Recent cuts in e-book reader prices, prompted by the release of the iPad, have made e-book readers a much more attractive option for many readers.

Amazon recently advised that they are now selling more Kindle books than traditional hardback books. The low selling priced of e-books – they use no paper or ink and have no delivery fees to speak of after all – certainly help. It can only be a matter of time before e-books start to sell more than paperbacks.

The ease with which e-books can be bought, and subsequently delivered, is another influencing factor. Readers can download a book to their Kindle in less than sixty seconds, at any time of the day or night, just as long as they can connect to Amazon’s Kindle store.

A possible area of concern for some customers was the worry that they would be “tied” to one particular e-book reader. Amazon appear to have tackled this issue very efficiently by making a host of of free “apps” which allow Kindle books to be read on a variety of different devices available. At the moment, Kindle books can be read on the PC, the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad, the Blackberry smart phone and any device which runs the Android operating system. It’s a clever move on Amazon’s part. Not only does it address customer’s concerns about being tied to one particular brand of hardware but every new app acts as a separate retail outlet for Amazon’s massive selection of Kindle books. Currently, approximately 20% of all Kindle book sales are destined to be read on non-Kindle hardware.

It appears that e-books are here for the long haul and that they will gradually begin to achieve an increasing proportion of overall book sales. It also looks as if Amazon are going to be very influential in the world of digital publishing for the foreseeable future.