LG and IRiver Enter the E-Reader Fray

South Korean maker of MP3 players, IRiver, is pairing up with flat-screen company LG Display (NYSE: LPL) to manufacturer e-readers for the global market. The companies hope that their “story” e-reader, already on sale in parts of Europe and Asia, can distinguish itself from the already popular Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s (NYSE: BKS) Nook.

IRiver and LG Display plan to set up the $5 million joint venture, called L&I Electronic Technology and aim to produce 1 million units annually by 2011. Analyst’s estimate that revenue from the e-book marketplace will reach about $1.2 billion in 2011, bullishly up from $350 million recorded last year.

This is just another example of how crowded the tablet pc space is getting. The sure-fire way to profit from this growth is place your bets with the semiconductor manufacturers. The broad-based iShares S&P North American Semiconductors (NYSE: IGW) or the Semiconductor HOLDRs (NYSE: SMH) are some of the better examples of how to play this growing trend.