The Kindle e-book reader has been a phenomenally successful product for Amazon. It’s currently the best selling product on the Amazon site. The Kindle accounts for 60% of all American e-book reader sales and both the Kindle 2.0 and the large format Kindle DX are now on sale to customers in more than 100 countries worldwide – growing Amazon’s reach and growing their customer base enormously.

At the moment, Amazon’s main competition is Sony – trailing in second place but with a very respectable35% share of the American e-book reader market. However, there are plenty of manufacturers who have witnessed the rapid growth of the e-book reader sector and now want a piece of the action. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had a separate section for e-book readers for the first time ever. Over two dozen companies - some of them household names, others less well known - had e-book readers on display. This is a clear indication of the perceived potential in this market segment.

However, what many of these e-book reader wannabes may be overlooking is the fact that the technical aspects of the hardware, whilst undoubtedly important, are only one part of the equation. The success of Amazon’s Kindle reader thus far has been due to a variety of different factors over and above its technical specification. Amazon occupies an almost unique position which gives it several advantages when it comes to selling e-books and e-book readers.

Amazon is, lest we forget, the biggest retailer of books on the face of the planet – bar none. It therefore has, in the view of the buying public, a very strong association with books. It also has a strong association with consumer electronic devices – as a merchant perhaps – but there is a strong perceived relationship nonetheless. Of course, the Kindle has now positioned Amazon as a manufacturer (although they subcontract the manufacture) in a big way.

So, in reality, those manufacturers who think they are going to steal Amazon’s crown just by producing a reader which has a few more bells and whistles, or is somehow “cooler”, are probably going to get an unpleasant surprise when the sales returns start rolling in. It probably requires another instantly recognisable household name who is both trusted and respected to make any serious impact on the scene now. Companies such as Apple or Microsoft would be prime contenders – and they both have readers of their own, or devices which could be used to read e-books at least, in development. Sony now have a well established e-book reader pedigree, so they must consider themselves to be a contender.Barnes and Noble could also be a contender.

One thing’s certain, no small electronics company is about to mount a serious challenge to Amazon’s current market domination. Partnerships, such as Plastic Logic’s agreement with Barnes and Noble, who will provide the books for the Que reader, might produce a few surprises. However, unless there is a truly surprising development in the offing, it looks like the Kindle reader is actually going to become the literary world’s equivalent of the iPod.