E-books: A library in your pocket

Will ‘e-readers’ like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader replace books?

The Amazon Kindle.
(Image credit: Flickr)

How many people read e-books?

Electronic books currently account for just 2 percent of the $35 billion-a-year book market, but sales are doubling each month even as the overall book market has been declining. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, which makes the Kindle, galvanized the publishing industry in May after he announced that when Amazon customers have a choice between digital and physical versions of a title, they opt for the digital version 35 percent of the time. That’s especially impressive given that there are only about 1 million Kindles in use worldwide. The debut in August of Sony’s Reader, whose basic model sells for $199, while Amazon’s goes for $299, should spur even more sales of digital books. With both devices an entire book can be downloaded in a minute or less, and hundreds of books can be stored in a slim tablet that fits in a purse or backpack. E-readers, says Web publisher Rob Grimshaw, “potentially could revolutionize the consumption of content in much the same way the Internet did.”

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