E-book readers and e-books have been hot topics for some time now. The market for e-book readers really took off in 2009, and one of the most important influences on this was the launch of Amazon’s Kindle.0 in February of that year. Amazon followed up with the release of their Kindle DX large display model in the summer of 2009 and, in the last six months of the year, it seemed as if electronics manufacturers were getting in line to launch e-book readers of their own in order to secure a share of the new market. The fact that practically every new reader which displayed the least potential was instantly dubbed the “Kindle Killer” should give some indication of just how influential Amazon was to the development of the market. The Kindle reader was, very definitely, the industry standard that had to be matched and then beaten.

However, there was very little evidence of a reader which was going to knock the Kindle off its throne. It was only with the launch of Apple’s iPad – a significantly different type of device – that the Kindle’s dominance was in any way threatened. Even then, the widely predicted demise of the Kindle as consumers turned en masse to the iPad doesn’t seem to have materialised. Shortly after the release of the upgraded third generation Kindle in August 2010 Amazon, for the umpteenth time it seems, had sold out of the devices and prospective customers faced a wait of several weeks before their new readers could be shipped.

Of course, the fact that the latest upgrades were accompanied by a further price cut might go some way to explaining the resurgence in the popularity of the Kindle. Amazon’s new entry level Wi-Fi only Kindle was available for only $ 139. If you consider that the Kindle 2.0 launch price was $ 359 in February of 2009, that’s a hefty price reduction. It takes the Kindle – and e-book readers in general – much nearer to the sub $ 100 impulse buying price range for personal electronic devices. It’s debatable whether or not the iPad’s release prompted this. Not only would the price reduction would have happened anyway, but there is still a lot of room for downward price adjustment – and probably in the not too distant future.

However, whilst Amazon and Apple may be enjoying a good deal of success, the same cannot be said for other e-book reader manufacturers. Several planned e-book readers have either been postponed or cancelled all together. The Que reader from Plastic Logic seems to be pretty well dead. Dutch company Irex, a previously well established business, has gone bankrupt after disappointing US sales of their Irex reader. The Skiff reader, from Sprint and Hearst has been shelved.

Are we heading towards a polarised market with Amazon dominating the low cost “pure” e-book reader sector and Apple cleaning up in the pricier tablet computer that’s also used as an e-book reader market? The difference in price between the Kindle and the entry level iPad is really quite large. Is there sufficient space between the two devices, in terms of both specification and price levels, to allow new players to enter the market?

Amazon recently confirmed that sales of Kindle books have overtaken hardback sales. It doesn’t seem to outrageous to suggest that e-book sales may very well catch up with paperback sales – quite possibly in the fairly near future. It seems certain that e-books are going to be an important part in the future of reading, but just what type of device will you use to read them on?