Amazon launched their original Kindle eBook reader in November of 2007.
It sold out in just five and a half hours and then remained out of stock right to April 2008.
In February of 2009 the new and updated Kindle 2 was launched and it consolidated Amazon's current position as the dominant player in the eBook market.
In May of 2009, just three months after the release of the Kindle 2, Amazon announced the launch of the Kindle DX - a bigger version of the Kindle with a larger display and the ability to read native PDF files.
It's very clear that Amazon consider the eBook market as a prime target for future growth and it's worth noting that, whilst alternatives do presently exist in terms of eBook reader devices, there have been few, if any, competitors with the necessary size and infrastructure to challenge Amazon's dominance - up until now.
In early June of 2009 Google confirmed that it will launch a programme for authors to sell digital versions of their books online before the end of 2009.
This follows on from an earlier commitment to make public domain books available in downloadable digital format - and has led to a partnership with Sony who announced in March that they would make Google's public domain eBook library available through their Sony PRS eBook reader.
Google's scheme will allow a greater variety in how readers access ebooks.
It seems unlikely that Google will limit the downloads to one proprietary reader.
At this time, books downloaded from the Amazon Kindle store can only be read on either the Amazon Kindle itself or the Apple iPod Touch or iPhone loaded with the appropriate Kindle reading app.
It may also be more user friendly for the authors of the books - Amazon has been criticised for retaining too large a share of the revenue generated by ebooks downloaded from its site.
The future market for ebooks and eBook readers is huge, so it can come as no surprise that Amazon finds itself with competition for a share of the potential revenue.
However, until now most of the new developments in the field have been from companies intending to market their own eBook readers, such as Plastic Logic who recently announced that they will launch a DX sized reader in 2010.
Google's huge library of electronic titles, available for use on a number of different hardware platforms, has the potential to totally alter the marketplace for downloadable ebooks in the near future.
It's also worth noting that, in a slightly ironic twist as the Kindle has often been called the "iPod of reading", Apple may well be launching a tablet type PC in 2010 - which will be positioned somewhere between an iPod Touch and a MacBook.
It would seem reasonable to assume that this may have the functionality to read ebooks, possibly in a variety of different source files.
Perhaps more important than the hardware considerations - it doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to envisage that Apple could expand their iStore to include ebooks just as they already expanded to include video when the iPod Touch was launched.
On the other hand, were Apple to stick with an app which allowed their users to read Kindle books on their Apple hardware then Amazon's position might be further strengthened.
It's a tribute to Amazon that almost any new development is the field of electronic books is currently labelled as the new "Kindle killer".
There's little doubt that competition is going to be fierce in this market in the near future.
Amazon certainly won't have it all their own way for much longer.
Even so, they are the current dominant force in the marketplace and might reasonably be expected to play a significant part in the future of electronic reading.
It sold out in just five and a half hours and then remained out of stock right to April 2008.
In February of 2009 the new and updated Kindle 2 was launched and it consolidated Amazon's current position as the dominant player in the eBook market.
In May of 2009, just three months after the release of the Kindle 2, Amazon announced the launch of the Kindle DX - a bigger version of the Kindle with a larger display and the ability to read native PDF files.
It's very clear that Amazon consider the eBook market as a prime target for future growth and it's worth noting that, whilst alternatives do presently exist in terms of eBook reader devices, there have been few, if any, competitors with the necessary size and infrastructure to challenge Amazon's dominance - up until now.
In early June of 2009 Google confirmed that it will launch a programme for authors to sell digital versions of their books online before the end of 2009.
This follows on from an earlier commitment to make public domain books available in downloadable digital format - and has led to a partnership with Sony who announced in March that they would make Google's public domain eBook library available through their Sony PRS eBook reader.
Google's scheme will allow a greater variety in how readers access ebooks.
It seems unlikely that Google will limit the downloads to one proprietary reader.
At this time, books downloaded from the Amazon Kindle store can only be read on either the Amazon Kindle itself or the Apple iPod Touch or iPhone loaded with the appropriate Kindle reading app.
It may also be more user friendly for the authors of the books - Amazon has been criticised for retaining too large a share of the revenue generated by ebooks downloaded from its site.
The future market for ebooks and eBook readers is huge, so it can come as no surprise that Amazon finds itself with competition for a share of the potential revenue.
However, until now most of the new developments in the field have been from companies intending to market their own eBook readers, such as Plastic Logic who recently announced that they will launch a DX sized reader in 2010.
Google's huge library of electronic titles, available for use on a number of different hardware platforms, has the potential to totally alter the marketplace for downloadable ebooks in the near future.
It's also worth noting that, in a slightly ironic twist as the Kindle has often been called the "iPod of reading", Apple may well be launching a tablet type PC in 2010 - which will be positioned somewhere between an iPod Touch and a MacBook.
It would seem reasonable to assume that this may have the functionality to read ebooks, possibly in a variety of different source files.
Perhaps more important than the hardware considerations - it doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to envisage that Apple could expand their iStore to include ebooks just as they already expanded to include video when the iPod Touch was launched.
On the other hand, were Apple to stick with an app which allowed their users to read Kindle books on their Apple hardware then Amazon's position might be further strengthened.
It's a tribute to Amazon that almost any new development is the field of electronic books is currently labelled as the new "Kindle killer".
There's little doubt that competition is going to be fierce in this market in the near future.
Amazon certainly won't have it all their own way for much longer.
Even so, they are the current dominant force in the marketplace and might reasonably be expected to play a significant part in the future of electronic reading.
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