Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family forin 2009. February saw the launch of the Kindle 2.0 and the DX followed hard on its heels in June. The Kindle very quickly achieved the position of Amazon’s number one selling product – even before the global launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

During the 2009 festive season, the Kindle became Amazon’s “most gifted” product ever and, on Xmas day 2009, more Kindle books were sold than traditional paperbacks and hardbacks combined. Of course, that was probably due to all those lucky people who had found a Kindle under the tree on Christmas morning. No doubt, after opening their gift and got the Kindle out of the box, proud new Kindle users would want to test their new toy. In all probability that would have involved connecting to the Amazon website and downloading a Kindle book or two.

Notwithstanding the above, selling more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardbacks is still a significant milestone. Even though some will say that the method of achieving this was a little artificial then perhaps that simply underlinesjust what a good fit the Kindle is for Amazon’s business model.

Of course Amazon’s secure a share of the new e-book reader market. The list of companies with e-book readers under development reads like a role call of consumer electronics giants. Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Samsung are just a few of the manufacturers who will be taking on Amazon in 2010. And let’s not forget Barnes and Noble who have thrown their hat into the ring with their Nook e-book reader.

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

One thing’s certain, Amazon will not stand and watch while their competitors enter the market which Amazon has been so instrumental in developing. The present iteration of the Kindles, as innovative as they were just a few short months ago, probably bear no resemblance to what e-book readers will be like in the (very) near future. Amazon will already be working on a new and enhanced Kindle (the Kindle 4?) and, based upon the level of innovation and drive they have displayed so far, Amazon would be justified in being quietly confident of achieving more success during 2010. Kindle users can look forward to an updated, enhanced Kindle loaded with new features – probably in the first half of 2010. In the meantime expect Amazon to continue to increase the choice of Kindle books available on its Kindle store - so users will have the ideal combination of hardware and software.