­Shipments of dedicated e-book readers will decline by a third this year, due to the impact of tablets and channel distributors' high inventory levels in North America.

However, Taiwan-based MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute) predicts that Europe, Japan, and emerging countries will become major markets to bolster e-reader sales next year.

It is anticipated that the global e-reader shipment will reach around 18.2 million units in 2013 and top around 23.0 million units in 2016.

In regard to e-reader price range, since Amazon is the market leader and has dominance over the price of e-readers, major branded vendors in North America set their products' price plans similar to Amazon's Kindle lineup. In 2013, MIC predicts that the mainstream e-reader products will be priced at around US$100; value line models between US$50 and US$100; mid-range and high-end models between US$100 and US$200.

Observing the regional e-reader markets around the world, MIC reckons that the United States will remain the largest market, followed by Europe, Japan, and China. The development of e-reader is highly correlated to the number of local e-books published and e-book sales. According to MIC, the number of users reading e-books via mobile phones is higher than that of reading e-books via e-readers.

However, the emergence of low-priced tablets such as Amazon's low-priced Kindle Fire, has posed a threat to e-readers, as their diverse functions and low prices have grabbed consumers' attention. Meanwhile, e-reader vendors are still having the difficulty in breaking ground on the development of e-paper color and motion display technologies. Since e-readers place a higher value on functionality than fashionable industrial design, consumers are less likely to buy new models due to new industrial designs.

Without the strong replacement demand, the global e-reader market development is expected to be challenging in the future.