Driven by Amazon's popular Kindle device, e-book sales worldwide will jump from $323 million in 2008 to nearly $9 billion in 2013, according to a new In-Stat forecast. E-book shipments, meanwhile, will soar from under 1 million to almost 29 million in the next five years.
Amazon has wisely released Kindle apps for every major smartphone platform and the iPad, raising the number of prospective customers for ebooks into the tens of millions. I suspect more Kindle books are being sold for non-Kindle devices than the genuine reader from Amazon.
I didn't want a kindle until I started using my husband's.
Now I use both that and the kindle app on my phone to read the newspaper - I have a subscription because I want to pay for the privilege.
With Kindle, you can access out of print material from Project Gutenberg - which has been fascinating for research and pleasure. I'm now a big fan of Kate Sanborn for example.
Also, you can download a sample of a book from Amazon - this is the first 10% of the total book. I read a lot of these and probably choose about 15% to go on and buy.
I am a very long way from an English language book shop, so reading books on the Kindle has been a life-saver.
I'm still surrounded by piles of musty old books. No Kindle yet, but I guess it's just a matter of time.
If they could develop a machine that provided that same sensory experience - the smell, the touch - then I may be persuaded :)
I have a kindle. Was reluctant to have one over an actual book at first but couldn't do without it now.