| Demand for electronic books, or e-books, has created | | | | features and can be downloaded on average in 2-3 |
| one of the fastest growing Internet consumer market | | | | minutes. An average novel is less than 300KB, |
| segments.Research conducted recently by the | | | | depending on content, so the average Palm for |
| Gartner Group revealed that one in 300 books read in | | | | example can store over 500 ebooks.Driving the |
| the USA, and one in 450 books in Europe, are read in | | | | growth of e-books is the soaring cost of paper books |
| the digital format. This is a 38% increase on last year, | | | | -- the average e-book, at $5, is 20% the price of a |
| which in turn experienced 25% growth on 2003.eBook | | | | paperback -- and the vast improvement in the usability |
| units sold for the first quarter 2004 were up 46% and | | | | of electronic reading devices. According to Foltran, |
| eBook revenues were up 28% over the same quarter | | | | 62% of e-book readers use laptop computers, 17% |
| in 2003. These and other figures charting the eBook | | | | use personal digital assistants such as BlackBerrys and |
| industry are reported in the quarterly Open eBook | | | | Palms, 14% use desktop computers and the remaining |
| Forum (OeBF) eBook Statistics Report."At this rate, by | | | | 7% use dedicated readers. The market is growing |
| 2010, more people will be reading e-books than the | | | | fastest in countries where rail and bus commuting is |
| old-fashioned paper variety," said Marco Foltran, | | | | the prevalent means of transport for middle- and |
| founder of online e-book retailer eBook Impressions. | | | | upper-income workers. "Reading devices have |
| "The forests will be saved!"eBooks downloaded using | | | | become a lot cheaper and more portable, and easier |
| Microsoft Reader, Adobe Reader or Mobipocket | | | | on the eye. So they're ideal for someone sitting on a |
| Reader are searchable, have handy bookmark | | | | bus for an hour. |