The Amazon Kindle has established itself as the leader of the e-book reader pack. It enjoys a 60% share of the U.S. e-book reader market – Sony’s PRS reader trails in second place with a respectable 35% share - and both the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX are now available worldwide. The fact that almost every new e-book reader which shows the slightest promise is immediately christened the “Kindle Killer” only serves to underline the fact that the Kindle is not only the market leader but the benchmark against which all new readers will be measured.

Bearing in mind the dominance of the Kindle, it’s easy to forget just what a relatively recent entrant it actually is to the e-book reader market. The very first e-book reader – Franklin’s eBookman – was released in 1999, over a decade ago. Sony’s PRS reader hit the market in 2006. The original Kindle didn’t launch until November of 2007. The upgraded Kindle 2.0 launched in February of 2009 and the DX was released in June of the same year.

However, Amazon’s competitors have been far from idle. Sony has released their Daily Edition reader. Barnes and Noble launched their Nook and even the new Apple iPad is widely felt to be a threat to the Kindle. Other e-book readers are available and, needless to say, they all have some features which are currently lacking from the Kindle – colour screen, touch screen functionality etc.

So what will Amazon do differently in future? So far, apart from a few firmware updates, Amazon’s main answer to increased competition has been to drop the price of the Kindle 2.0 from its $ 359 launch price to $ 259. However, rumours abound that a new version of the Kindle is in the offing. Which begs the question – what should Amazon do to update the Kindle?

One explanation for the success of the Kindle is that it provides a superb user experience. It’s very easy to operate using only one hand, the controls are very good and the display is excellent across a wide range of different lighting conditions. It would almost be a shame were Amazon to follow the example of the Sony Daily Edition and introduce touch screen controls. If your main aim is to read books then this probably isn’t a big improvement. If anything, it detracts from the ease of one handed operation. It also necessitates the use of a slightly more reflective screen which may well perform less effectively in certain lighting conditions.

The introduction of color would definitely be a good thing but, were this to be done in the manner of Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader, it would be fairly pointless. The Nook features colour navigation only – the actual reader is still monochrome. This is not necessarilly the huge drawback which some consider it to be. After all – when it comes to reading books, black text on a white background is pretty much the norm.

What Amazon will want to do, and what they have done very well thus far, is to provide a better user experience. Rather than focus on hardware gimmicks, Amazon may decide to go for options which will be genuinely useful to their customers. For example, quicker page turns with reduced screen flicker and prolonged battery life may be enhancements which end users would find beneficial. Likewise, increased choice of  Kindle books, faster downloads and the ability to share e-books might be more important to users than hardware mods.

Amazon has secured the market leadership position as a result of their ability to satisfy customer needs. Predictably perhaps, they have a good understanding of what people who read books actually want. As a result, the Kindle is now their number one selling product and, so far, they have not just led the market but pretty well defined it. The next generation of the Kindle will demonstrate exactly how the market will develop in future. In all probabilitiy, it seems highly likely that Amazon will continue to take the lead in the e-book reader market, rather than following their competitors.

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