Contrary to popular belief, the reading industry is not a dying business.  As a matter of fact, it’s evolving from a market of tangible, cut-and-bound reading material to one of e-readers and interactive literature.  After a decades-long reign on the book market, it’s time to turn the pages past your conventional brick-and-mortar book retailers.  As we reach the epilogue of the age of corporate booksellers like Barnes and Noble and Borders, we need to consider the most important question: who will be the reading industry’s next leaders?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past year, you’ve probably seen a variety of digital books on the market.  Sony, Amazon, iPapyrus, Pocketbook, and Jinke are only of the few companies vying for a piece of the market share.  But that was this year. You can expect 2011 to bring in a slew of high consumer expectations.  More gadgets, more apps, more choices, and inevitably, more competition among these companies will be the result of the growing popularity of ebooks.  In the chaos of this industry battle, there are a couple of companies that have risen out of the ashes and caught our eye. (more…)

A major shareholder of Borders suggested that the smaller bookseller should acquire its much bigger rival Barnes & Noble. Both booksellers are now threatened by Google, which launched its Google eBookstore yesterday.

Borders and Barnes & Noble have struggled for a number of years after Amazon and other online booksellers gained market share. A merger of the two could lead to large cost savings through economies of scale.

The book selling business has definitely evolved over the years. When Borders and Barnes & Noble started creating their superstores in the 1990s, many small bookstores, unable to compete on price and selection, had to close. Once Amazon turned up, the fortunes of Borders and Barnes & Noble started to change. Both are now struggling retailers trying to survive.

Steve Jobs definitely knows how to put on a show. Apple unveiled their newest creation, the iPad yesterday. Aside from being a very nicely designed tablet computer, Apple’s iPad will also serve as an e-book reader.

Apple’s entry into the e-book market is a direct challenge the Amazon’s Kindle which has dominated the e-book market over the past couple years. Now it looks like Amazon has some catching up to do.

Apple’s iPad works like a regular computer. You can browse the internet, listen to music and read books. You can think of it as an entertainment hub. Amazon’s Kindle is a more simplified device. The Kindle basically only does one thing, but it does it really well. It allows you to read books on the go. The Kindle makes it very easy to get books from Amazon’s store (wirelessly with no internet fee). (more…)

Amazon introduced the 2nd version of its popular Kindle today, calling it Kindle 2.

Amazon’s original version has been out of stock for months after Oprah Winfrey endorsed it before the holiday season. This is the second time demand has outpaced the supply. Can this new Kindle generate the same amount of excitement?

New Features in Amazon’s new Kindle 2:

• Improved Battery Life: 25% Longer. “…read for up to two weeks on a single charge.”
• Better Designed: thinner - 1/3 of an inch and more sleek design.
• More Storage: 2GB Internal. Holds over 1,500 books.
• Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns.
• Read-to-Me: New Text-to-Speech feature. Will read books out loud to you.

Click see all of Amazon Kindle 2′s specifications

Here are some of the nice advantages of the Kindle that have stayed the same:

• Free Internet: No monthly bills. You can browse the internet using their basic browser.
• Over 230,000 Books: …and counting
• Low Cost Books: New York Times Bestsellers are still $9.99
• Quick Downloads: Most of the books download wirelessly within 1-minute.
• Free Samples: You can get free samples, usually a chapter or two, for each book.
• Email Your Kindle Personal Documents: You can send PDF or Word Documents.
• Listen to Music: Probably not a replacement for your iPod however.

I’ve been using the Kindle for over a year now and have been very pleased. Unfortunately, the version I have now is officially the “old version.” I’ll probably be tempted into getting this version eventually – that is, if they don’t end up selling out again.

If you’re like me and do a lot of random reading on a variety of subjects you’ll love the Kindle. I used to carry 2 or 3 books in my bag everyday and now I just carry the Kindle. Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) is probably alleviating thousands from future back problems. Thank you Jeff.

So what would you like to see in the next Kindle, Kindle 3.0? Feel free to post your comments on new features you’d like to see…