Yankee Group forecasts that the already hot U.S. e-book reader market is about to catch fire, sparking from $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2013.

In “Yankee Group’s US E-Book Reader Forecast: Kindling a Fire,” analyst Dmitriy Molchanov shows that as devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s Reader, Interead’s COOL-ER and enTourage’s eDGe adopt more palatable price points—Yankee Group sees $150 as the sweet spot—the market will respond in kind.

“Unlike the iPod, which hooked serious music buyers in addition to a raft of casual listeners, e-book reader adoption will be limited to heavy readers only—at least until prices come down,” Molchanov says. “But we see the average price of e-book readers declining by roughly 15 percent per year for the next five years, resulting in 55 percent increase in adoption rate year over year.”

In fact, by 2013:

• U.S. e-book reader sales will reach 19.2 million, a CAGR of 34 percent, with 6 million e-book readers sold in 2010 alone.
• The U.S. installed base of e-book readers will hit over 36 million, up from an installed base of 9 million by 2011.
• Half of all consumers who indicate interest in buying an e-book reader will have bought one already, so device makers should act quickly.

E-book readers are the leaders of what Yankee Group calls “Anywhere Devices,”a new class of connected products explored in our research and new book ANYWHERE. We expect a host ofconsumer Anywhere Devices to follow in their wake.

About Yankee Group

The people of Yankee Group are the global connectivity experts–the leading source of insight and counsel trusted by builders, operators and users of connectivity solutions for nearly 40 years. We are uniquely focused on the evolution of Anywhere connectivity, and chart the pace of technology change and its effect on networks, consumers and enterprises. Headquartered in Boston, Yankee Group has a global presence, including operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

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