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E-book readers are currently very popular. Much of the credit for that must be given to the Amazon Kindle reader of course – although there are many other e-book readers to choose from today. Even with so many new e-book readers available on the market, the Kindle is still the market leader – and by a long way.

It should be remembered that the e-book reader market -at least as a commercial enterprise – is still very new. This sector is expanding very quickly indeed, but it is still under development. For example, there is no agreement in the industry as to what format e-books should be stored in. Many of the new e-book readers seem to be going for the ePub format. Amazon has its own proprietary format for the Kindle books used on its Kindle reader – and it has received some criticism for this in the past.

In theory, an industry standard e-book format would allow books to be ported from one e-book reader to another. It would also allow customers more choice when buying e-books. More buying options and a greater degree of choice should be good for customers and tend to produce lower prices. You see the logic.

Amazon, with their proprietary Kindle format, can justifiably point to their long pedigree of offering their customers excellent value for money in the field of reading – hardback, paperback or e-book. Their stated strategy of selling Kindle books for $9.99 or less, has resulted in some uncomfortable negotiations with some of the major book publishing houses are trying to defend their profits from the sale of hardback books.

A recent study, carried out by the New York Times, looked at the average book price for the Kindle, Nook and Sony Daily Edition readers. Ten books, five fiction and five non-fiction, were selected from the NYT’s 2009 best books list. It was found that the Kindle had an average price of $ 13.69, the Sony reader’s average price was $ 15.26 and the Nook had an astonishing average price of $ 19.29 per book.

Not much evidence of Amazon using their market domination to profit there. In fact, based upon these numbers, if you read a book a week then the Kindle would save you $ 300 a year compared to the Nook. It would pay for itself and still leave you with enough money to buy a few books.

It’s difficult to imagine that the Amazon Kindle will wind up as the Betamax of the e-book world. Fans of Sony’s daily edition can take that any way they like. It seems likely that, for the moment at least, the main discussion that needs to take place is between the major publishers and e-book retailers. Only when all involved are agreed that the world of reading and publishing has changed will it be appropriate to agree on industry standards.

Learn more about the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.

There are plenty of reviews on Amazon’s Kindle reader available right now. It’s way ahead of the other e-book readers available right now, and is very much the “must have” gadget of the moment. Most reviews concentrate on the Kindle’s technical aspects, which is quite understandable. It’s a piece of high tech personal electronics after all. Even so, a brief look at the actual user experience with the Kindle might not be a bad idea.

Firstly though, a very brief examination of the spec. The Kindle 2.0 costs $ 259. It’s about the same size as a typical paperback book and about as thick as a monthly magazine. It weighs just over 10 ounces and has enough memory to store 1500 books – give or take (depending upon the size of them and the number of illustrations, if any). One of the most important features is the e-ink display. This provides a very good reading experience and doesn’t strain your eyes. It also requires less power.

My first impression, when I got my Kindle a few weeks ago, was that the button positioning wasn’t right. There are two buttons on the left hand side – “prev page” and “next page”. There are a further two buttons on the right hand side – “home” and “next page” (again). At first I thought that one of the “next page” buttons was redundant. I thought that the left hand one wasn’t required.

After using the Kindle for no more than a matter of minutes it made sense though. Lying on a sofa reading, sitting in a cramped seat on a plane, or drinking coffee in McDonald’s, it’s perfect. You can hold the Kindle in one hand and leaf forwards and backwards through the pages using your thumb. It’s considerably easier to use one handed than a real book.

Before I got hold of my Kindle reader, I had tried out an e-book reader which was on display in my local book shop. To be honest, I didn’t really take to the way the page flickered slightly when it was “turned”. Once again, after I had been using the Kindle for no more than a few minutes, I quickly became used to this. For me, it feels just like turning the pages in a traditional book now.

When it comes to the actual reading experience itself, the e-ink display is fantastic. The background is a light grey instead of the traditional white or cream of paper – but you get used to this very quickly. Compared to reading on a back-lit PC monitor, it produces a lot less eye strain. All I can say is that, whenever I’m reading a good book on the Kindle, I’m totally oblivious to the fact that I’m using it rather than reading a conventional book.

The e-ink display’s low power requirement is another big plus point. I’m a fairly heavy user – I read a lot – and I find that, with the wireless turned off, the Kindle will last for about three weeks before it needs recharging. I only turn the wireless connection on if I want to buy a book. On the subject of buying books, the process is very simple, in fact it may be a little too efficient, I know I have made a few impulse buys. The Amazon publicity for the Kindle says that books download in just under a minute. I would say, based upon my own experience, that it takes a lot less than a minute for a typical book which isn’t packed with illustrations. It may not be a big deal – but it is all part of the positive user experience.

In summary, to try to give you an idea of just what a pleasant experience reading on the Kindle is, a couple of days ago I received an e-mail from Amazon which told me that my order had been shipped. I knew that I hadn’t ordered anything, so I went to check what had happened. I turned out that I had pre-ordered a book by one of my favourite authors some weeks ago and then forgotten about it. In all honesty, the idea of going back to reading a large heavy printed book (it’s a fairly hefty volume), albeit one written by an author that I really enjoy, is something of a disappointment. The thought of holding a big, clumsy book in my left hand and flipping pages with my right seems downright antiquated to me now.

Learn more about the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise your reader.