According to a recent research paper on the commercialisation of "electronic ink" by NextGen Research, the global market for e-book readers will top $2.5 billion by 2013.

The paper, entitled e-Book Readers and Electronic Paper: Digital Content and Display Technologies Kindle New Markets, estimates that the global market for e-paper will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 124% between 2008 and 2013. The paper points to cultural and behavioural changes in consumers as the source of the growth, but leaves questions of convergence and printed paper open.

\"e-Reader makers will have to appeal to more than just early adopters and business travellers,\" says study author James Belcher. \"Consumers have read books printed on paper for hundreds of years, without having to endure the multiple format changes seen in recorded music. Getting the bulk of consumers to change that behavior will require an experience superior to that of the printed page."

While Amazon's Kindle has dominated the market thus far, with most of the market based in the US, the study also highlights the need for competition in the market which should see a growing international market for e-books.