July 29, 2009 (updated August 3, 2009)

Who Will Buy An eReader?

Later Adopters May Not Be As Loyal To Amazon.com

This is the second document in the "eReader Revolution" series.

by Sarah Rotman Epps

with Mark Mulligan, Erik Hood

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Awareness and ownership of eReaders is growing, spurred by marketing campaigns from Amazon.com and Sony as well as press coverage and word-of-mouth buzz. But Forrester's newest data suggests that tomorrow's prospects for eReader purchasing bear scant resemblance to the high-earning, male tech optimists that own eReaders today. Later waves of eReader adopters are likely to be female consumers who read a lot but buy fewer of their books online than the first wave of eReader adopters do. This spells trouble for Amazon — and opportunity for consumer electronics manufacturers like Sony, mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart, and publishers like Harlequin, which could (and do) target these consumers with eBook subscription services.

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