Glorious future for Readius and other eBook readers

"Up to 30% of Dutch people will own an eReader within 5 years from now!" This bold conclusion was the outcome of research on eBooks and eReading recently presented by Dutch research institute TNO. This 30% translates to more than 5mln people owning a Readius or other eBook reader in the Netherlands alone. Extrapolate this further to the global eReading markets and we eventually  end up with 1.5 billion eReaders.    
 
There were a couple of conditions attached to this conclusion of course,  such as the  prices of eBook readers need to drop by 50% and sufficient  Dutch content (eBooks and news) should  become available. Looking at the significant price drops of any new consumer electronics product then a 50% price drop in 5 years is nothing spectacular. As for the content, indeed a lot of work still needs to be done, not just for eBooks in Dutch but for digital content around the world in general. Having said this, a lot of work is being done right now and new initiatives are popping up every day. Publishing books as eBooks complimentary to the paper version is becoming more and more popular. Newspaper and magazine publishers have discovered the internet years ago and are now shifting their focus to "mobile", realising the enormous potential of the mobile eReading market. Very soon inside our Content World section of readius.com you will find examples of eBooks, news and other digital and mobile initiatives optimised for Readius.
 
So is TNO's prediction correct? If you ask 100 experts in any industry what the market size will be of an emerging market in 5 years from now you will receive a 100 different answers.  
 
However, no matter what the exact percentage will be, one thing is clear, eReading is a fast growing market and there is great potential for Readius and other eReaders in the market.