E-book readers likely to take off in 2010: Gartner

The year 2009 is likely to be remembered as a year of several milestones in the e-book space, according to Gartner, Inc, an information technology research and advisory company. However, Gartner said that while the number of electronic readers sold is likely to increase in 2009, it expects 2010 to be the year when e-book readers become popular consumer electronic devices.

“With the entry of new players, such as Barnes and Noble, into the e-reader market and an increase in models from Amazon and Sony, consumers began to have choices in single-purpose e-reading devices in 2009,” said Allen Weiner, research vice president, Gartner. “Among the product differentiation points are support for E Ink’s electronic paper technology, support for further book formats, and the ability of some devices to allow consumers to purchase content wirelessly and to synchronize content across devices.”

Weiner said that while fixed devices — those built solely for reading, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s family of devices — get most of the attention, book applications on smartphones are an important component of publishers’ digital strategy.

However, Gartner believes that it is too early in the evolution of the e-reading market to know whether smartphones will become powerful stand-alone devices for reading books or whether they will complement other devices, such as fixed readers.

“Book applications for smartphones have the potential to become a bridge to other devices such as tablet readers and netbooks,” said Weiner.

“Apple, for example, could migrate the more than 500 book applications in the iTunes store to a tablet device and Google, which recently announced a browser-based e-reader, could offer applications for Android-based devices of various form factors.”

However, there are a number of hurdles that need to be overcome before e-readers can become more mainstream, such as e-books needing a wider variety of retail channels, ranging from big box retailers and wireless carrier outlets to lifestyle stores such as Brookstone, says the report. More publishers must also be seen buying into e-readers. For example, there has been news about the success of Dan Brown’s e-book sales of Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol’, however other noted authors such as John Grisham and J K Rowling do not have their works available as e-books.

Gartner said that price will also play a leading role in the future success of e-readers. At the moment it appears that $199 will be the lowest price for fully featured e-reading devices for the 2009 shopping season, but Gartner analysts said prices will need to drop closer to $99 to gain significant consumer traction.