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2009 may well be remembered as the year that e-book readers really took off. The release of the Amazon Kindle 2.0 in February, followed quickly by the large format DX version in June, created a real buzz about these devices. At the moment Amazon are well out in front. they claim a 60% share of the American e-book reader market – but there are plenty of other companies who either have their own readers on the market or scheduled for imminent release.

Increased competition has started to produce a downward pressure on prices, which is good news for consumers of course. The price of the Kindle 2.0 has fallen by $ 100 to $ 259 since its launch in February of 2009. That’s still a fairly pricey piece of kit of course.

However, there are some financial advantages to using e-book readers which could go some way to justifying the high initial purchase price. For example, because e-books don’t use paper, ink or processing chemicals they tend to cost quite a bit less than the equivalent paperback or hardback editions. They are also, for exactly the same reasons, better for the environment (even taking into account the materials used to produce the e-book reader devices themselves).

It’s even possible to find completely free Kindle ebooks on Amazon’s website. Most of these are “classic” which are out of copyright now – but there are some recent releases also. Some publishers are showcasing certain authors by offering free Kindle editions of their work. There also seems to be a trend for making free copies of the first in a series of books available in an attempt to draw readers in. It’s all good news for readers who can use free Kindle books to offset the cost of their reader hardware.