Publishers are only just beginning to mull over the potential uses for e-reading data.
Millions more readers will have an e-reading enabled device in their hands in the coming months.
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Other manufacturers give Kobo free placement because they simply want to provide an e-reading app to their users.
But consumers' insatiable appetite for Apple devices aside, e-reading may be too small a market for more new entrants.
Michael Serbinis, Chief Executive of Toronto-based e-reading company Kobo, sees a future marked by innovations in social sharing and mobile commerce.
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Nearly half said they would be "very" or "somewhat" likely to borrow an e-reading device that came loaded with a book they wanted.
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Most e-reading devices allow the reader to adjust the font, font size, contrast, column width, and other factors to compensate for impaired vision.
But what does this mean for the future of e-reading?
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Content distribution partnerships have already been sewn up for the US, so now it's just a matter of patience until we get our e-reading on in gorgeous XGA resolution.
Kobo, which makes e-reading software as well as physical e-readers, benefits either way though e-reader customers are more valuable because they tend to read more and buy more books.
New e-reading services, which allow readers to purchase and store books in a digital library and read them on different devices, have some of the most sophisticated reader tracking software.
While distributing pricey e-reading devices isn't much of a threat to Gideons, it's likely that the proliferation of e-reading features on all mobile devices could make a dent in demand.
Meanwhile, the shift to digital books has fueled an arms race among digital start-ups seeking to cash in on the massive pool of data collected by e-reading devices and reading apps.
Romance fans were among the earliest adopters of e-reading.
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The slide also indicates the Opal will have a particular e-reading focus, which makes sense for a 7-inch device, and there's a mention of "premium audio, " which nicely reinforces our speaker hypothesis.
African-Americans, Hispanics, and those who live in lower-income households are more likely than others to say they would be interested in borrowing pre-loaded e-reading devices and take classes about how to use the devices and download books.
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The list of too-late devices at CES goes on: Samsung has launched four of its own e-reading gadgets, at least one of which features a panel of buttons that emerged sleekly from the bottom of the device.
According to a new study conducted by research firm PlayScience and Digital Book World, nearly 40% of parents who have e-reading children aged 2-to-13 plan on buying them some sort of e-reading device this holiday season.
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When I was growing up, the kind of people who today are lamenting the decline of physical books in the face of e-reading were busy bemoaning the decline of independent bookstores in the face of ruthless national chains.
Kobo, which makes digital reading devices and operates an e-reading service that stocks 2.5 million books and has more than eight million users, has recently started looking at how readers as a whole engage with particular books and genres.
The Nook e-reading app could also bolster Microsoft's efforts to establish a digital storefront to market apps, e-books and other content to go along with Windows 8, which is critical for the company's plans to enter the tablet market.
The cost of e-reading devices keeps dropping, and it's likely that in the next year or two companies like Amazon may be giving away basic e-readers for free (on the principle that you can make more money selling "blades" than "razors").
Nowhere else can you browse a selection of more than 82, 000 paper books, walk over to Area-e, our new digital hub, where you test drive a variety of e-Reading devices, and then search for your next favorite book in our e-Bookstore.
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Rise of e-commerce and e-reading.
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The latter never dug into the old ways but has long been willing to evolve when it comes to delivery (call and pick up later in store, mail order whether in a store or via web, and, of course, its having jumped into e-reading).
With an increase in e-mail reading via the phone comes an increase in reading e-mails around the clock (and likely an increase in the number of e-mails sent and received, as well).
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E-readers are great for reading e-books.
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The two most frequent users for the Fire were e-book reading, at 71%, and browsing the Web, at 39%.
Sony and Amazon also face competition from the many other e-book reading devices that are starting to be produced.
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