30 Million E-Readers Will Sell in 2012, Some Say

After several announcements about e-book reading devices, market watchers have outlined their latest expectations in regards to the e-reader market.

E-readers are those compact, portable gadgets that people use to read books, newspapers, magazines, etc. in electronic format, and not only.

Since people like to listen to music and surf the web almost as much, most such devices have incorporated audio support, some even color and video.

Either way, they have been very popular ever since their beginning days, and they continue to be.

Indeed, they are expected to sell by the millions for years, 30 million in 2012 alone, if a recent report is to be believed.

Digitimes says that, based on what 'sources' have been saying, about this many e-readers will be shipped next year, or at least 27 million.

The fact that e-book readers went through significant price cuts and are very cheap now, compared to their early days, definitely helps in this.

Needless to say, with how tablets seem to be getting mentioned everywhere nowadays, the effect of slates, or lack thereof, was noted here as well.

Many people have been saying that tablets will reshape the industry and take over for the other multimedia/entertainment gadgets out there.

Whether this is really going to happen or not, it definitely won't be next year, as slates will have a minimal effect, if any, on their sales.

All in all, the shipment levels of e-readers for 2012 will be more than twice as high as those expected of 2011.

One company that will surely benefit from all this is E Ink, whose e-paper screens are utilized by more or less all e-readers, save color ones.

The company already reaped a slice of benefits and will keep doing so, especially if it hurries up and makes a nice successor to the Pearl display.