Electronic book readers have been around for a long time now. The original, generally considered to have been the eBookman by Franklin, was released in 1999, more than ten years ago. Further devices subsequently hit the market, notably Amazon’s original Kindle in November 2007 which actually lagged behind the Sony’s PRS which had launched in 2006.

It was only in 2009 that e-book readers really took off in a big way. Without ignoring the contribution of Sony in any way, a great deal of the credit for this must surely go to Amazon. The launch of the Kindle 2.0 in February 2009 quickly followed by the release of the larger DX reader in June caused generated a lot of publicity and made e-book readers the year’s “must have” gadget. The Kindle rapidly established itself as Amazon’s best selling product and was the most gifted Amazon item ever over the 2009 festive period. Both Sony and Barnes and Noble had released new readers of their own in advance of the Christmas season, but uncertainty about delivery in time for Xmas, combined with the already established dominance of the Amazon’s Kindle meant that Amazon topped the sales charts.

There is currently a good selection of readers to choose from. The list of companies who are developing their own e-book readers is both long and impressive. For the first time ever, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas in January 2010, had a separate section dedicated to e-book readers. Most industry analysts are predicting that 2010 is going to be an even more successful year for e-book readers and we can probably anticipate continuing growth in the rate of sales.

It is effectively a completely new market segment which didn’t exist, at least not in any meaningful way, until very recently. Over and above the manufacturers of the e-book reader devices themselves, there are implications for publishers, educational institutions, independent suppliers and of course, the end users – book readers.

The sudden emergence of this market segment has been good news for companies such as M-Edge who manufacture a wide range of Kindle accessories including covers, reading lights, chargers and so on. There are plenty of other accessory providers who are also profiting. Right now, there is a strong focus on accessories for the Kindle reader, but as the market expands and other readers increase in popularity these will also afford good opportunities to the independents.

The e-book reader market is still in its infancy. It is developing and expanding at an astonishing rate. Amazon was instrumental in the development of the market up to now and has a 60% share of the U.S. market as a result. In 2010, their dominant position is going to be challenged, as will Sony’s current second place (with a highly respectable 35% market share). However, this new market offers plenty of opportunity for companies with the vision and innovative skills to establish a presnce for themselves at this early stage.