The electronic book segment is pretty well a feature of the landscape now, and according to a report from In-Stat, has room for growth given such new features such as e-mail and Web connectivity.

 

The research, “Electronic Book Survey: US Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviors Towards the Burgeoning E-Book Market,” is available now for $1,495 and covers the U.S. market.

 

With reading e-books on your iPod Touch and sending e-mail on your e-book reader, it easy to see that we're going to end up with a blended product pretty soon here.

 

In May TMC reported that today followed up its recent unveiling of a larger e-book tablet by creating an easier way for iPhone (News - Alert) users to buy content to read on the device.

An e-book is a handheld consumer electronics device capable of accessing and storing digitized books for portable use. Examples are the Amazon Kindle DX -- and one can download and read Kindle books on the iPod Touch and iPhone as well, although without all the neat features of the Kindle reader itself -- and the recently introduced Sony E-Reader Daily Edition.

 

“According to In-Stat’s (News - Alert) most recent consumer survey, current e-book owners desire e-mail capability in the next e-book they purchase," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. “Longer battery life and Internet connectivity are the top two desired features among respondents who don’t currently own an e-book but plan to buy one in the next year.”

Recent research by In-Stat found that Amazon is the leading brand of e-book owned, the largest percentage of e-book owners (45.5 percent) is spending between $9 and $20 a month on e-book content and that "eleven percent of total survey respondents said they planned to purchase an e-book over the next 12 months."

In-Stat is a segment of the $9 billion Reed Elsevier (News - Alert) global information network.