eader sales are expected to reach 3 million by Dec. 31, according to Forrester Research. Almost a million of the devices could be sold during the upcoming holiday season alone. In 2010, sales are projected to double, to 6 million.

That kind of growth is hard to come by in the recession-wracked technology industry, and a crowd is starting to gather. Around the world, at least 17 e-readers are in development or already on the market. Among the better-known entrants is Asustek — the Taiwanese company practically invented the netbook category with its ASUS Eee-PC, and it is working on a product called the Eee-reader that it hopes to have on the market in time for Christmas. South Korea's two powerhouse consumer-electronics companies, Samsung and LG Electronics, are wading in too. Samsung earlier this year introduced a reader called the Papyrus in South Korea; reports circulating in the technology blogosphere say LG is developing a prototype with a large, 11.5-in.(diagonal) flexible screen. Meanwhile, Japan's Fujitsu has released the world's first dedicated e-reader with a color screen, although so far the device is only available in Japan.

 It isn't just tech companies that are joining the fray. Bricks-and-mortar bookseller Barnes & Noble, which in the U.S. offers access to 750,000 e-books on its website, is rumored to be pondering the development of its own e-reader to rival the Kindle. (The retailer already has a partnership to sell e-readers made by IREX, a spin-off of Holland's Royal Philips Electronics.) Major newspaper and magazine publishers, which are suffering mightily from the loss of subscribers and advertisers to the recession and the Internet, are also getting involved. News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Wall Street Journal, is reportedly considering a deal with Japanese consumer-electronics giant Sony, which in 2004 introduced the first commercially viable e-reader, to u

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