E-book readers have been available for quite some time now. The original, which is generally agreed to have been the eBookman by Franklin, was released in 1999, more than ten years ago. Other readers were released, notably the original Amazon Kindle in 2007 which actually lagged behind the Sony PRS reader which was released 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, much of the credit for this has to go to Amazon. The launch of the Kindle 2.0 in February 2009 quickly followed by the release of the Kindle DX with its large display in June caused quite a stir and made e-book readers the year’s “must have” gadget. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s number one selling product and over the course of the 2009 festive season became the most gifted Amazon product ever. Both Sony and Barnes and Noble had released their own new readers in advance of the Christmas season, but uncertainty about delivery in time for Xmas, coupled with the already established dominance of the Amazon’s Kindle meant that Amazon topped the sales charts.
There is currently no shortage of readers to choose from. The list of companies who have their own readers either in development or already available 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 expect to see sales continuing to grow rapidly.
It is effectively a completely new market sector which didn’t exist, at least not in any meaningful way, until very recently. Apart from the manufacturers of the e-book reader devices themselves, there are opportunities for publishers, educational institutions, third party manufacturers and of course, the end users – book readers.
The sudden emergence of this market segment has been excellent 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 suppliers who are also profiting. Right now, there is a strong focus on products aimed at the Kindle reader, but as the market expands and other devices gain in popularity these will also offer profitable opportunities to the independents.
The e-book reader market is still nascent. It is developing and expanding at an astonishing rate. Amazon was instrumental in the development of the market to date and enjoys a 60% share of the American market as a result. In 2010, their dominant position is going to be challenged, so too will Sony’s current second place (with a very healthy 35% market share). There is plenty of opportunity in this new market for companies with the innovative skills and vision to establish themselves at this early stage.
