The statistics speak for themselves. According to Yankee:

**By 2013, U.S. e-book reader sales will climb to over 19 million, with 6 million e-book readers purchased in 2010 alone.

**The U.S. installed base of e-book readers will hit over 36 million by 2013.

Although e-book readers have been around for some time, the cost has kept people away, as has the new e-format.  Japan introduced a color reader this past year for $1,000.  Increasingly, people are getting used to reading online or through their electronic devices.  The increased revenue from digital downloads shows that these concerns are disappearing.  According to the Association of American Publishers, the total industry revenue from digital-book downloads rose 149 percent in 2009.  

Amazon, which started the ball rolling with its Kindle electronic reader has sold about 3 million units in the U.S. and is now selling them in 100 countries worldwide.  

Barnes & Noble’s Nook runs on the Android platform and includes Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G wireless connectivity, a six-inch E-ink display, and a separate, smaller color touchscreen for the primary input device. 

According to an article on Teleread.com Sony reports that e-readers are the best sellers on the U.S. Sony Style Web site, and sales volume quadrupled year over year. Sales were so high over the holiday season that registrations crashed the servers on Christmas day.  The best selling model is the Touch edition, instead of the lower priced Pocket edition.  Sony wants to use e-ink for its displays, not LCD, so it’s waiting until color e-ink is for its new color reader.

E-reader Info. com says that Taiwan’s Delta Electronics will start shipping 13.1″ color e-readers at the end of the second quarter, in addition to the  8.1″ monochrome ones.

Apple announced a tablet computer, the iPad, that comes with a new iBookstore.  Most consumers don’t read enough that they are going to buy one device just for reading but Forrester’s data says that more consumers  read e-books on their cell phones and PCs than on e-readers.

The prices are already going down.  There will also be new features, such as listening to music while reading, or an e-book that has two screens like a book, or touch screens.  The battery life is getting much longer at the same time.  The Nook has a plastic screen to reduce glare.  Electronic-ink technology is set to move from black and white to color by the end of 2010. Even video is very close.

All this bodes very well for businesses that want to write high-quality and i informative e-books  on topics that their customers need and want. These e-books can be used as marketing tools or as income builders.  The next couple of years are really going to shake up the e-book industry.