Ereader sales projections through Christmas 2011

I was curious to know what the latest projections are with regard to the sales of ereaders this coming Christmas season. Here is what I found:

ComputerWorld
ComputerWorld is projecting that sales will continue to increase, with Kindle being the leader.

SocialTimes
SocialTimes is predicting a Kindle price below $50 by Christmas; also projecting free devices by next summer. (Is that a serious projection or tongue-in-cheek?)

Seriously, I do think that free devices are a possibility if the makers of the device can be pretty certain that buyers will fill the devices with books purchased from them. Not so far-fetched when thought of that way. Getting a device into the hands of someone who will then purchase content for it makes a lot of sense.

For myself, I feel that there will be price wars this Christmas season. I do think we'll see both Kindle and Nook below $100. I am guessing around $75; perhaps with a $50 price tag on Black Friday. It will be interesting to see what happens to the prices of the NOOK Color and iPad.


I'd really, really like to see a drop in book prices. I've done my best this year to spend as little money on ebooks as possible. I've been reading a lot of free domain books (very slowly!) and also borrowing ebooks from our library's source. It's been working for me but I can certainly say that I am itching to use some B&N gift cards that I've been saving! I think I will make some purchases for myself sometime after Christmas. For now I am going to continue to work on reading books and ebooks that I already own.