Whilst they may be the hot gadget of the moment, it’s worth noting that e-book readers have been available for quite a while. In 1999, the Franklin eBookman was launched (generally held to be the first example of a dedicated electronic book reader). Sony’s PRS reader launched in 2006 and, in 2007, the original Amazon Kindle was released.

2009 was however, the year that e-book readers seemed to really catch the public imagination. A great deal of the credit for this must go to Amazon. The Kindle 2.0 launch in February, rapidly followed by the launch of the large format Kindle DX in June created a real buzz around e-book readers and established them as the “must have” gadget of the year. Very rapidly, the Kindle became Amazon’s best selling product. Over the 2009 festive period it became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever. On Christmas day, Amazon sold more Kindle books than they did hardbacks and paperbacks combined. Both Barnes and Noble and Sony had launched new readers in advance of the 2009 Xmas rush – but concerns over delivery combined with the fact that the Kindle was already so well recognised meant that Amazon’s dominance continued.