The e-reader market: Still young and restless

The price for some e-readers with black-and-white displays could drop below $100 before the end of 2010, and possibly hit $50 in 2011, according to analysts. Declining prices are just one indication that the e-reader market is young and likely to remain in a state of uncertainty for a few more years, they said. One major question still on the minds of experts is how long e-readers equipped with black-and-white e-ink displays can survive in the face of competition from full-color tablet computers, such as the highly successful iPad, which offers multimedia functionality and a backlit 9.7-in. LED display. Adding more complexity to the market outlook, e-readers with color e-paper will appear this fall, said Dmitriy Molchanov, an analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group Research. Fujitsu has shown color e-paper prototypes for years. Meanwhile, Qualcomm, using a different technology, has since 2008 been working on a color Mirasol display that could appear in coming months, Molchanov said. Also, this month, LG Display revealed that it's working on flexible color e-paper for e-readers or tablets. Molchanov said color e-paper will force a market split, with Kindle maker Amazon.com leading a number of manufacturers down a low-cost path typified by devices that have black-and-white displays and cost as little as $50. Amazon doesn't plan to introduce a Kindle with a color screen anytime soon, he noted. Meanwhile, Sony, which makes the Reader device, will lead other manufacturers into a "high-feature" segment for devices that have color displays, touchscreens, video support and more, Molchanov said. Allen Weiner, a Gartner analyst, wrote in a blog post earlier this summer that it is "early in the e-reader evolution" and postulated that the market is becoming segmented three ways. Many choices for e-reader devices One of the three "flavors" of e-readers that Weiner expects to see is a class of devices with e-ink displays that cost about $149 or less. That group would include the 6-inch Kobo, which is offered at the Borders Web site for $149.99. Since Weiner's blog post appeared, Amazon has launched two versions of its next-generation Kindle. Both have 6-inch screens, but one is a Wi-Fi-only model that sells for $139 and the other supports both Wi-Fi and 3G and sells for $189. Both start shipping Friday.puffin web browser for windows flash player for philips smart tv stellar phoenix windows data recovery crack serial lexmark x1100 series drivers getjar nimbuzz chat radmin viewer 3 4 full version fat head drivers golf clubs my wcp watermark editor 1 0 1 blackberry desktop software 6 0 2 42 return of the condor heroes 2006 direct