According to Juniper Research’s latest report, the continued growth of dedicated ebook readers and tablets will push annual revenues from eBooks delivered to portable devices to $9.7 billion by 2016, up from $3.2 billion this year.
The research company has found that the increasing demand for tablets means that these devices will account for nearly 30% of all eBook downloads by 2016. What’s more, the launch of leading brand bookstore services like Apple’s iBookStore and Amazon’s Kindle will also drive the adoption.
Smartphones are the primary reading devices only in Japan, where folks like getting their manga fix while on the go. As for the rest of the world, they/we prefer bigger screens, though still want the synchronized eBook content across multiple devices, something Amazon is already doing with its Kindle apps.
When it comes to the “bricks and mortar” retailers, Juniper points to the Barnes & Noble, which offers both physical books as well as dedicated reading devices, like the brand new Nook Tablet along with an accompanying e-bookstore service.
Additionally, the report suggests that the adoption of the EPUB3 standard will create new markets for rich media titles (enhanced eBooks), and that subscription pricing models are coming for corporate/educational content…