Soaring e-book sales speak volumes focus 08/03/2010

Soaring e-book sales speak volumes

focus 08/03/2010 HONG KONG — After years of lurking in the literary wilderness, the e-book market has exploded with online retailer Amazon.com’s digital volumes recently overtaking sales of their hardcover counterparts. The increase in sales has come as Amazon slashes the price on its Kindle device amid heavy competition from Apple’s multi-purpose iPad and e-readers from Sony and bookstore giant Barnes & Noble. Underscoring the growth, Hong Kong’s massive book fair, an annual event attended by almost one million people, wrapped up last week with visitors exposed to a brand-new section: Digital reading. Beijing-based Hanvon Technology unveiled a black-and-white tablet reader that comes with 5,000 Chinese and English book titles pre-installed for about 3,400 Hong Kong dollars (440 US). Readers can download thousands more titles for as little as 20 Hong Kong dollars each on the device, which also lets users enlarge the typeface, take notes and look up words in the dictionary..... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100803com7.html

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