Growth in e-reader use to slow this year?

According to statistics released by eMarketer, there was significant growth in e-reader use in the US last year. They estimate that there was a 44% increase in adults using an e-reader at least once a month in 2012 compared with 2011.

This isn’t really that surprising – we have known for quite a while that e-readers have rapidly become more popular. However, what is interesting about the research is that it seems the growth in e-reader use is set to slow for 2013.

Of course, this was always bound to happen. There comes a point when the majority of people who are likely to want an e-reader already have one, and sales are affected accordingly. It’s still interesting to see evidence of this though; eMarketer predicts that growth in e-reader use will slow to around 10% in 2013 and will fall even further next year.

What is important to note here is that even though growth in e-reader use might be slowing for now, there is still a growth there. It also doesn’t take into account the fact that e-readers are not the only devices that readers use for electronic books – tablets, smartphones and computers all play a part in terms of e-book sales.

It will be interesting to see whether this growth in e-reader use continues to slow though, or whether it will see another surge. For now, you can read more about this story here.