[charmian]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...-blessing.html

The slowing e-book sales increase of 2013 (up 5% in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2012, according to AAP’s StatShot report; sales rose 44% for all of 2012) can be traced to a couple of factors. Growth in 2012 was in part fueled by the phenomenal e-book sales of the Fifty Shades and Hunger Game trilogies, and no blockbuster of similar scope appeared in the first half of 2013. Then there are the reduced sales gains made by digital reading devices. Although the tablet market has exploded, sales of dedicated reading devices have slowed. Research conducted by the Codex Group found that consumers who use tablets to read e-books buy fewer titles than those who use dedicated e-readers such as Kindle Paperwhites or Nook GlowLights. Additional research by Codex found that tablet users buy about one-third of their titles in e-book format and two-thirds in print; consumers who own both tablets and dedicated e-readers tend to split their book purchases evenly between print and digital, Codex CEO Peter Hildick-Smith said. And the growing use of tablets to read books has led to another drag on e-book buying—tablet users spend less time reading on their devices than those who use dedicated e-readers. Taking those trends into account, Hildick-Smith predicted that the one-third/two-thirds split between digital and print sales will remain in place for a few years, adding, “The chapter of incredible growth has wound down.”