The humble eBook which gathered steam a few years ago, looks set to create an even bigger stir in the coming years.
According to UK-based research company, Jupiter Research, the sales on eBooks will reach $9.7 billion by 2016. This is a tripling of current figures for 2011, where eBook sales are expected to top $3.2 billion. Driving the increase is of course the ubiquity of the tablet PC. Brands such as the Apple iPad have made the tablet the de facto reading device both on the go, and at home. Even Amazon’s own Kindle has been a big part of the revolution and it too has seen massive growth in digital sales in the last few years.
The changing trend in information consumption is also affected by smartphones, which in the last few years have grown ‘smarter’. Many of the popular smartphones on the market are able to handle Microsoft Word and PDF documents, making them ideal tools to help spread the growth of the eBook.
Juniper’s predictions are also buoyed by the rising trend of dedicated e-readers supplied by traditional book sellers like Barnes & Noble. These combined with the readership of eBooks from Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones will make the eBook the standard format for most data in the coming years.
Do you prefer eBooks to actually printed ones? Share your thoughts about the growing eBook trend in the comments below.