Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was released in February with the DX following hard on its heels in June. The Kindle very rapidly became Amazon’s top selling product – even before the international launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

During the 2009 festive season, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Christmas day 2009, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did traditional printed volumes. That may very well have been due to all those lucky people who had found a Kindle under their tree on Christmas morning. It seems reasonable to suppose that, having unwrapped their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, proud new Kindle owners would want to try out their new toy. That would probably have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Nevertheless, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Even if some maintain that the method of realing this was just a little artificial then, when you think about it, that simply emphasises just what a good fit the Kindle is for Amazon’s business model.

It goes without saying that Amazon’s competitors have been enviously eyeing their success and taking appropriate action to ensure that they grab a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers in development reads like a who’s who of consumer electronics multinationals. Apple, Samsung, Sony and Microsoft are some of the competitors who will be going head to head with Amazon in 2010. Not to overlook Barnes and Noble who have now entered the market with their new Nook reader.

A lot of the next generation readers will have features which will make the Kindle, in its current format at least, look somewhat dated. Touch screen controls, color displays and an industry standard e-book format which will allow users to lend e-books to friends and family or even to borrow books from participating lending libraries are just a few of the features which users can look forward to.

Amazon will certainly not stand and watch whilst their competitors take over the market which Amazon has done so much to foster and encourage. The present Kindles, although innovative only a few months ago, probably bear little resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the near future. Amazon is probably already working on their next generation Kindle (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon will be anticipating further success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle packed with new features – probably in the first half of 2010.