Factoids That You Can Use

Old-fashioned readers who enjoy the printed word on paper are fast becoming dinosaurs. According to Forrester Research, 17.6 million consumers this year will spend $966 million on digital e-books. Next year, the research firm estimates those numbers will triple, with 60 million readers shelling out $2.8 billion for the privilege of thumbing through a digital book. Publishers remain nervous about the sea change because paper books produce more revenues than their electronic cousins. However, the firms that manufacture multipurpose devices, such as tablets and smartphones, are expected to be the big winners. Today about 35 percent of people who read electronic books use a laptop computer. Another 32 percent get their books delivered on Amazon's Kindle. But Apple's iPhone and iPad have made a huge dent in the market in a brief period. Today about 15 percent of consumers use an iPhone to download a digital book, while 9 percent are reading on their iPad. That does not bode well for companies, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, who retail e-readers. Faced with the prospect of more competition, Amazon has slashed the price of its new Kindle, which should attract more consumers. But the gains will likely be short-term. At least for the foreseeable future, experts predict consumers are likely to prefer devices that do more than function as a dedicated reader.