The recent growth in the popularity of e-books and e-book readers has been heavily influenced by Amazon. Amazon’s Kindle reader first appeared on the market during November of 2006 and further updates followed with the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009 and the launch of the third generation Kindle in August 2010. The large format Kindle DX was launched in the summer of 2009 and was also updated in August 2010.

A great many industry analysts suggested that, notwithstanding the influential role of Amazon in the development of the e-book reader market, the release of the Apple iPad would signal the demise of the Kindle reader. However, after the third generation launch – accompanied by some price cuts – Amazon sold out of Kindles (yet again). It appears that demand remains sky high for what is now Amazon’s number one selling product.

Many readers have warmed to e-books quite rapidly. Others have an attachment to physical books. However, for most people the ability to carry large quantities of reading material around with them, coupled with the ease of operation offered by e-book readers, has turned out to be a winning combination. Recent reductions in the selling price of e-book readers, possibly brought about by the iPad’s launch, have sweetened the deal sufficiently for many readers.

Amazon recently announced that they are now selling more Kindle books than traditional hardback books. As e-books use no paper or ink and have no delivery fees, they tend to sell at lower prices, which certainly helps. It can’t be very much longer before e-books begin to sell more than paperbacks.

Apart from the price, the ease of purchase of e-books is another driving factor. Readers can download a book to their Kindle in less than sixty seconds, at any time of the day or night, just as long as they can connect to Amazon’s Kindle store.

A possible area of concern for some customers was the worry that they would be “tied” to one particular e-book reader. This issue has been very effectively addressed by Amazon who have released a large number of free “apps” to allow Kindle books to be read on a wide range of different devices. At the moment, Kindle books can be read on the PC, the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad, the Blackberry smart phone and any device which runs the Android operating system. It’s a smart move by Amazon. Not only does it address customer’s concerns about being tied to one particular brand of hardware but every new app acts as a separate retail outlet for Amazon’s massive selection of Kindle books. Current figures suggest that around about 20% of all Kindle book sales are read on non-Kindle hardware.

All things considered, it looks like e-books are here to stay and that they will gradually account for a higher and higher percentage of book sales. It also looks likely that Amazon will remain as one of the driving forces in the digital publishing arena for some time to come.