Independent Manufacturers Benefit From E-Book Reader Market Growth

E-book readers have been around for a long time now. The original, which is generally agreed to have been the eBookman by Franklin, launched in 1999, over a decade ago. Other readers were released, notably the original Amazon Kindle in 2007 which was actually released after the Sony PRS reader which had launched in 2006.

However, it wasn’t until 2009 that e-book readers really cauht the public imagination. Without ignoring the contribution of Sony in any way, much of the credit for this must surely go to Amazon. The Kindle 2.0 launch in February 2009 backed up by the launch of the Kindle DX with its large display in June caused generated a lot of publicity and established e-book readers as the hot gadget of the year. The Kindle quickly became Amazon’s best selling product and was the most gifted Amazon item ever over the 2009 festive period. 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, combined with the already established dominance of the Kindle reader meant that Amazon topped the sales charts.

At the moment there is no shortage of readers to choose from. The list of companies who are developing their own e-book readers 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. All the signs are there that 2010 is going to be an even more successful year for e-book readers and we can probably anticipate continuing growth in the rate of sales.

In effect, the e-book reader sector is a brand new market sector which didn’t exist, at least not in any significant way, until very recently. Apart from the manufacturers of the e-book reader devices themselves, there are opportunities for publishers, academic establishments, third party manufacturers and of course, the reading public.

The sudden emergence of this market segment has proved to excellent news for companies such as M-Edge who manufacture a wide range of Kindle accessories including reading lights, covers, chargers and so on. There are plenty of other accessory providers who are also benefiting. Currently, there is a strong focus on accessories for the Kindle reader, but as the market grows and other devices increase in popularity these will also afford good opportunities to the third party suppliers.

The e-book reader market is still in its infancy. It is developing and expanding at a rapid pace. Amazon has been hugely influential in the market’s development up to now and has a 60% share of the U.S. market as a result. In 2010, their dominant position is going to be challenged, so too will Sony’s current second place (with a highly respectable 35% market share). There is plenty of opportunity in this new market for companies with the innovative skills and vision to establish a presnce for themselves at this early stage.