2009 has been a big year for e-book readers – largely due to the efforts of Amazon. Amazon released the Kindle 2 in February 2009, which was an updated and enhanced version of the original Kindle which was launched in November 2007.

In June of 2009, Amazon followed up with the Kindle DX, which was a large display version of the Kindle 2. It was specifically targeted at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks – and it caused quite a stir.

The potential for academic use – from interactive textbooks to continually updated texts, and not forgetting the possibility for academic bodies to save a lot of money – attracted a lot of attention. As well as entering into agreements with a number of colleges and universities, Amazon gained a lot of free publicity from political entities such as the New Democratic Leadership Council and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his role as Governor of California.

Thanks to Amazon’s foresight and determination – assisted by all the free publicity – the Amazon Kindle reader has now become Amazon’s number one selling product. At the moment, the Kindle has an amazing 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market and has recently unveiled an international version. The Kindle has become virtually a byword for e-book readers.

It’s probably worth noting that Amazon were, in fact, a late entrant to the e-book reader market. The original e-book reader, the Franklin eBookman, debuted in 1999 – a decade ago. The Sony PRS reader was launched in 2007, before the launch of the original Kindle.

Amazon might been late to market – but by combining effective, technical innovation and responsiveness to customer needs, Amazon has achieved its current dominant position. The vast choice of titles available for the Kindle on Amazon’s website and the wireless connectivity (with no monthly fee) were every bit as key to the Kindle’s success as were the technical aspects of the reader.

However, now that Amazon has – almost single handedly – established the market, it seems that every man and his dog want their share. Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Barnes and Noble, iRex, Plastic Logic, Asus – the list goes on – all have their own readers set for release or in the final stages of development.

Wireless connectivity, presently one of Amazon’s unique selling points, will become standard and Barnes and Noble will offer users of their new Nook reader more than 1,000,000 titles to choose from. The new Sony Daily Edition reader will allow users to borrow books on loan from participating lending libraries. Meanwhile, there will probably be a standard e-book format agreed in 2010, which will allow users to lend e-books to family and friends or transfer them over to other readers if they want.

Currently, many industry watchers are checking out the line up of new readers and trying to predict which one is the Kindle Killer. However, Amazon has been very astute thus far and they won’t give up their top position without a fight. It took them less than eighteen months following the release of the first Kindle to launch the much improved Kindle 2. The DX followed just a few months later. Amazon almost certainly has some ideas for the future development of their Kindle family. Could it be that the Kindle killer will turn out to be the Kindle 4 and that we could see this sometime in 2010?