EReaders are becoming mainstream gadgets for more and more people. When the Kindle 1 (or even Kindle 2, Nook, or the older Sony devices) came out they were seen (by many) as eccentric gadgets at best, now they are taking as prominent a place in public view as the Walkman had two decades ago.
I guess that this may be the canary in the coal mine for a lot of publishing concerns, since this means that electronic versions of traditional print are taking the center stage faster than most of us would have imagined…
IPads and Kindles force newspapers further away from print
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/25/ipad-kindle-newspapers-digital-print
Clive Thompson on the Future of Printed Books
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_thompson_books
Blowing Out the Digital Book as We Know it
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/12/blowing-out-the-digital-book-as-we-know-it
On the death of book publishers and other middlemen
http://gigaom.com/2011/10/28/on-the-death-of-book-publishers-and-other-middlemen
