The FINANCIAL -- December 2011 research from Verso Advertising and Burst Media shows significant growth in the population of ereader owners—but also in the group saying this is a device they are likely never to buy.

Nearly 16% of US internet users surveyed said they had an ereader in December 2011, double the number who said the same a year earlier and more than five times as many as said so in December 2009. But as more users have made ereader purchases, the number of people who plan to purchase one is shrinking, along with the number of those who are unsure. As those likely to purchase an ereader do buy one, the “unsures” are swinging into the “not at all likely” camp. In 2011, for the first time, more than half of respondents said that ereaders were probably not for them.The rise of tablets has not helped the ereader market.

The LCD-screen devices have greater functionality than ereaders. Limitations and specialization go hand in hand in the case of ereaders, and for heavy readers with concerns about eyestrain or glare, they still appeal—especially as their price point has dropped far below that of tablets.

But for the average consumer, tablets seem to hold greater appeal—and as their prices come down in turn, including through lower-end tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire, fewer web users see the point in an ereader device that does nothing else but display text.

eMarketer estimates 33.3 million US adults used ereaders at least once per month in 2011 and that figure will rise to 45.6 million by the end of this year. Growth rates are dropping quickly, however, from 162.1% in 2011 to 37.2% this year, and as low as 5.8% by 2014.The tablet user population, by contrast, is expected to continue to see stronger, double-digit growth throughout eMarketer’s forecast period, reaching 89.5 million US users by 2014.

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