New E-Book Reader Market Is Good For Business

Electronic book readers have been available for quite some time now. The Franklin eBookman is generally considered to have been the first and launched in 1999, over a decade ago. Other readers slowly appeared - the Sony PRS launched in 2006 and the first Amazon Kindle hit the streets in November of 2007.

2009 was however, the year that e-book readers seemed to really catch the public imagination. A great deal of the credit for this must go to Amazon. The Kindle 2.0 launch in February, rapidly followed by the launch of the large format Kindle DX in June created a real buzz around e-book readers and established them as the "must have" gadget of the year. Very rapidly, the Kindle became Amazon's best selling product. Over the 2009 festive period it became Amazon's "most gifted" product ever. On Christmas day, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did hardbacks and paperbacks combined. Both Barnes and Noble and Sony had launched new readers in advance of the 2009 Xmas rush - but concerns over delivery combined with the fact that the Kindle was already so well recognised meant that Amazon's dominance continued.

There is no shortage of e-book readers to choose from right now. There is a long, and impressive list, of manufacturers who now have their readers on the market, or who are developing them for release in the very near future. Industry analysts are anticipating that 2010 will be a big year for e-book readers and the level of sales is expected to increase.

What this represents, is the creation of a completely new market segment which, until very recently, simply wasn't there. Over and above the manufacturers of the e-book reader devices themselves, this represents a significant development for traditional book publishers, educational authorities, suppliers of accessories and, of course, the customers who read the books at the end of the process.

The sudden creation of this sector has been very good news for companies like M-Edge, who supply a wide range of accessories for the Kindle, including reading lights, covers, chargers and such. There are many other suppliers of this type of accessory who also stand to profit. Currently, much of the focus is, quite understandably, on the Kindle reader. However, as the market expands and other readers establish themselves there will be further opportunities for the third party accessory suppliers.

Still in its infancy, the e-book reader market is developing and expanding at an extremely rapid pace. Amazon has been hugely influential in the market's development and growth up to now. 2010 will see their current dominance challenged. Sony's second position - with a very healthy 35% market share - will also come under fire. There are plenty of opportunities for innovative companies to profit from the e-book reader gold rush in 2010.

Learn more about the Amazon Kindle reader and see the full range of Kindle accessories available to help you customise your Kindle.