The eBook market continues to record strong growth with the upsurge in usage of tablet devices, with revenues from eBooks delivered to portable devices forecast to be pushed to $9.7 billion by 2016, up from just $3.2 billion this year.

Worldwide shipments of eReaders will nearly triple from the 25 million expected to reach the market this year to 67 million eReaders by 2016.

Google eBooks are now available to Australian customers. Two local booksellers are already onboard, and an affiliate program is open for website operators.

Over the last three years the use of e-books as an alternative to print books has stalled with a new global survey of 6,500 students finding students still find the two equally important for their studies. According to Gartner research director Marti Harris part of the problem is a persistent lack of standards in terms of the e-book platform.

    Amazon has announced a hefty growth in its sales, but it is less profitable than it used to be.  

It seems but a distant memory but it was only a month ago that HP withdrew its Touchpad tablet from the market and subsequently caused a frenzy among buyers who snapped them up for $99 in a fire sale. Looking back at that experience, if Apple is not concerned at the emergence of the new Amazon Kindle Fire then it should be.

Amazon's much-rumoured tablet has been announced. The Kindle Fire is an aggressively priced 7in colour device with a new approach to web browsing.

Amazon’s upcoming Android-powered Kindle tablets are coming soon, with industry reports, rumours, presumptions and prognostications suggesting the tablets will be sold at extremely competitive pricing, with app and digital media sales to bring in the real profits.

Although some are excited to finally see Amazon’s soon-to-be-superseded B&W Kindle 3 models set for sale from month’s end in Big W, Dick Smith and Woolworths, if you already have a tablet, why swindle yourself by spending yet more on outdated Kindle hardware?

With new Kindle models on the way soon, Amazon is clearing out stocks of older models by lowering prices in the US and finally selling them in Australian retail stores. It might be tempting for some, but with new models around the corner, this is one e-book whose cover you should judge carefully.