The Amazon Kindle reader has been a huge success for Amazon since it was first introduced in November of 2007. The updated Kindle 2.0, which launched in February 2009 was a driving force in the early development and growth of the e-book reader market and the latest third generation Kindle reader, launched at the tail end of July 2010, has been flying off the shelves.

Sales of the Kindle 3 have, according to Amazon, been higher than for any previous Kindle in the equivalent post launch period. It hardly conforms to the widely predicted death of the Kindle that many industry analysts predicted following the launch of the Apple iPad.

It’s a compliment to the Kindle - albeit a backhanded one - that, until now, its only realistic competition has come in the form of a multi-functional tablet computer which costs over three times the price of the Kindle. It seems reasonable to assume that were Amazon to treble the Kindle price, that some additional features could possibly be added.

However, that’s unlikely to happen. The Kindle is a specialist, intended to be the best e-book reader available on the market. The iPad is a versatile device. They are two entirely different devices which are aimed at different market sectors. Comparing the two devices point by point seems unlikely to yield any meaningful result.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to note that there are now games being released for the Kindle. Obviously the iPad is the clear winner when it comes to playing games – the Kindle’s screen, whilst ideal as an e-book reader, is not suitable for anything which requires a fast refresh rate.

So it should come as no great surprise that the types of games appearing for the Kindle are mainly numbers games and word puzzles. At the moment, Scrabble is the best selling game for the Kindle. Crosswords, Sudoku and a variety of word puzzle games are also available. We’re not talking about Grand Theft Auto or Halo Reach here – but, without wanting to stereotype, it makes perfect sense that someone who reads a lot might also enjoy doing crosswords and solving word puzzles.

Scrabble for the Kindle is currently selling for $ 4.99 and is the best selling game for the Kindle at the moment. Most games available seem to range from $ 0.99 to $ 4.99. We can even see some free games becoming available, a trend which – if Kindle games follow the same pattern as Kindle Books - will probably grow in future.