2010: The Year of the E-Book

SEATTLE (TheStreet -- Amazon(AMZN), Sony(SNE), and Barnes & Noble(BKS) could reap the benefits of e-book "mania" in 2010, according to analyst firm Gartner.

E-books, such as Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader have been gaining momentum in recent months, although Gartner says that the technology's big boom will be next year.

"With the entry of new players, such as Barnes & Noble, into the e-reader market and an increase in models from Amazon and Sony, consumers began to have choices in single purpose e-reading devices in 2009," said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement. Robust growth is expected in the next year, according to Gartner, culminating in an e-book frenzy during the 2010 holiday season.

Analyst firm Forrester recently increased its 2009 projection for e-book sales from 2 million to 3 million, with 30% of the year's sales coming during the holiday season. Forrester attributed this to falling device prices, more content availability, better retail distribution and plenty of media buzz.

Gartner agrees that price will be crucial in e-books' future. "At the moment it appears that $199 will be the lowest price for fully-featured e-reading devices for the 2009 shopping season," it said, but the firm added that prices must drop closer to $99 to drive significant take up.

Moving forward, book applications on smartphones will also become important, potentially bringing in revenue for a slew of tech giants.