As Amazon preps a line of Android-based tablets, a concern going forward has to be whether a colorful iPad competitor will undermine sales of high-end Kindles and whether Amazon has enough resources to actually support a real computing device.

The Holy Grail for many is the popular extension of social networking to the eReader world. We're not close, but with their most recent market moves Barnes & Noble and Kobo are joining Copia and Goodreads in attempts to incorporate more social networking for readers.

Market research into the size of the 2010 eReader and tablet markets from IDG yields some interesting facts: sales of tablets outpace sales of eReaders, Apple has 83 percent of the tablet market, and the second-best-selling eReader comes not from Barnes & Noble, but Pandigital.

A Pew Internet survey of Web users revealed that users are willing to pay for content -- on average, some $47 per month -- but only 10 percent have ever paid for an eBook, exposing the tremendous upside in the market.

The Apple iPad has proven to be a prime contender in the eReader field, as many have eschewed Kindles and Nooks to go with the general-purpose tablet for their eBook needs. Word has it that the next generation of the market-leading tablet may have enhancements specifically designed to appeal to eBook consumers.