The Kindle wasn't quite the first ereader to appear on the scene, but it helped to popularise ebooks like nothing else before or since - it essentially did for digital reading what the iPod did ...

Amazon's Kindle readers support a variety of e-book formats, including MOBI, AZW, KF8/AZW3 and PRC. MOBI came from Mobipocket, which Amazon acquired in 2005, and files may use the MOBI or PRC ...