Since its original release back in 2007, Amazon’s Kindle reader has consistently been the best e-book reader available on the market. That is the reason behind its success to date. At the end of 2009, it seemed as if every personal electronics manufacturer was trying to secure a share of the nascent e-book reader market – and any new reader was immediately christened the “Kindle Killer”. This is due to the fact that the Kindle was, and still is, the industry benchmark. The recent launch of the enhanced third generation Kindle reader has increased the gap between Amazon’s reader and the following pack even further. It’s worthy of note that the latest Kindle killer isn’t even an e-book reader at all, but Apple’s iPad. This is a very different device with a much higher price tag and, when looked at as an e-book reader, one which suffers in a number [...]

This time last year, the new market for e-book readers was really taking off – gold rush style. Following the huge success which Amazon had achieved with its Kindle reader – firstly with the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009 and then with the large display DX model in the summer of the same year – a small army of personal electronics firms seemed to be developing, releasing or updating e-book readers of their own in order to grab a share of the new and rapidly developing market. Sony and Barnes and Noble were bursting a gut to get their new readers launched before the 2009 festive season and Samsung, Plastic Logic, Asus and a host of others were rushing to get their readers on the market as fast as they could. The Computer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas in early 2010, had a dedicated e-book reader section [...]