Last week saw the release of a new Kobo range, and (not to be outdone) the yearly release of the new Kindle line. Despite Bezos’ insistence that he doesn’t need his customers on the ‘upgrade treadmill’, Amazon released an upgrade to pretty much every single one of their devices, including two new Kindle Fire tablets and the predicted backlit eInk reader. So, as readers, what are we looking at for Christmas this year?

Sales figures. A detailed breakdown of sales of devices by country, including market share, plus a deep look into the data they hold for each customer, as well as how their recommendation system works. CEO Jeff Bezos is likely to unveil their print-to-ebook sales ratio, alongside comparative figures of how each version of Kindle has sold over a specific date range. He will announce the collaborative work he is doing with publishers and retailers to move toward an aggregated eBook sales chart similar to Neilsen’s Bookscan, and his plans to be far more transparent with the press in the future regarding profitability and strategy.

HA! Ok, enough of that.

Following Microsoft’s investment of $300 million earlier this year, leading American book retailer Barnes & Noble has revealed plans to expand outside of North America for the first time, bringing its Kindle-rivalling NOOK e-reader to UK shores this coming October. Offering an array of over 2.5 million books, magazines and apps, nook.co.uk will become fully operational upon the launch of the hardware, which will itself be made available through bodies which Barnes & Noble currently refers to only as ‘well-known UK partners’ (so roll up and place your bets now! I’m giving very fair odds on it being Elton John and David Furnish.)

A team of designers and researchers over at OnlineTeachingDegree.com have designed an infographic highlighting how they believe e-readers are inspiring us (or folks in the States at least) to hit the books.

What do you think? Are e-readers making a difference? Take a look below…

(via Kaitlyn White)

It’s a moment everyone always knew was coming, and it’s finally here: Amazon said yesterday that sales of Kindle downloads have officially sailed past print sales in the UK. Of course, it can say anything it likes, because its figures remain unaudited and, given the lack of further comment on the matter, look likely to remain that way. If you’re prepared to take the omnimegahyperconglomerate (or whatever) at its word, however, then for every 100 print books it has sold so far in 2012 in the UK, 114 of its paid-for e-books have been downloaded (and if you’re really, really bad at maths, that means that e-book sales are 14% higher than print sales). UK Kindle owners are apparently buying on average four times as many books now as they did before buying the device.