With the CEATEC in full swing in Japan, news from the show floor is flooding all websites dedicated to consumer electronics. One of the rising stars during 2009 is the electronic e-book reader or EBR for short. There was not too much noise about EBRs at CEATEC up to now, but this doesn’t mean there was no news in this market at all. Here is a summary of some interesting bits of information gathered during the last few days.

Norbert Hildebrand
Insight Media Analyst

While everyone has heard of the Amazon Kindle as the poster child of this new kind of device, many other brands have also entered the market with many more expected to join in the near future. Since the future for EBR is very bright, this also means e-paper displays have great potential. Many market research firms, including Insight Media, have paid attention to this market and published market reports and forecasts during the past twelve months. With many forecasts predicting the creation of a multibillion USD market within only a few years, this market deserves continued attention and observation of the analysts around the world.

Amazon as the world leader in e-books and e-book readers, reported some interesting news in the last few weeks. First, it reported that the electronic version of the new Dan Brown book (The Lost Symbol) outsold hardcopies in the first few days of publication. But after a week of sales, the hard copy sales quickly exceeded e-book sales (100,000 electronic copies versus the 2 million hardcopies). It seems that the EBR could be a platform to very quickly realize revenue in the publishing world once the penetration of EBRs has reached a more substantial level.

What is Amazon doing about it? They announced a frontal attack on the international market with an international version of the Kindle 2. This version provides wireless access (over 3G) in over 100 countries. At the same time, the price has been decreased to $279 for the international and $259 for the US version. They also announced plans to market an international version of the Kindle DX in 2010.

In a quick check on the street price levels of competing EBRs available in the US, we arrived at the picture shown in this article. While the price levels are quite spread out, in general the larger EBRs with more functionality are selling for a premium in the market, as one would expect. As can be seen, the new pricing of the Amazon Kindle 2 (6" screen) is not only very aggressive but will force other providers to come down with their prices, as the Kindle 2 will be made available in more and more countries around the world. This is exactly what one would expect from a young and promising market to drive market adoption.

What else is of interest in this market? Plastic Logic, one of the first promoters of e-paper devices, has announced that they are targeting only business users with their first device to be rolled out in 2010. The device will have a 10" monochrome touch screen display and connect wirelessly via the users’ Smartphone. On a different note Barnes&Noble announced a Plastic Logic EBR to be available in the spring of 2010. The device will sport a paperback sized color display! Our calls to Barnes&Noble were not immediately returned, but we are sure that we will hear more of this product as we get closer to 2010.

Based on LCD display technology, Toshiba is offering the Biblio an EBR - Smartphone hybrid device that targets more the occasional reader with a small (3.5") LCD display. The more interesting part of this device is in its new and innovative keyboard based on the MFLEX Morphpad technology enabling a keyboard that acts either as a phone pad or a QWERTY keyboard depending on its orientation.

There will be more news coming in the next few weeks, as the electronic manufacturing companies are getting ready for the holiday season. For everyone looking at EBRs as a holiday gift, this could be the one product that sells out quickly. With major retail chains adding EBRs to their holiday offering the availability will be significantly improved over last year. Combined with the lower price points we can expect them to do very well during the holiday season. So, why are you still reading this? Go out and support the economy!

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