According to The Christian Science Monitor, the Kindle e-book reader may be more in demand than initially anticipated.

An industry analyst at Citigroup doubled his forecast for 2008 sales of the paperback-sized device from 190,000 to 380,000 units.

If those estimates hold up, it would mean that sales of the Kindle, which can download and display some 150,000 books as well as other reading material (such as newspapers), would track well against the first-year sales of Apple’s iPod.

The analyst, Mark Mahaney, also predicted that the device, introduced last November, could become one of the hottest gifts of the holiday season this year, largely because no other game-changing new gizmos are likely to be introduced this fall. The biggest competitor in December would likely be the new iPhone.