Quick Edit |Reader rivalry

The factors you consider while making that choice could well determine the future of electronic publishing.

More and more people are reading their books in tree-friendly electronic form. Steve Jobs recently said that five million books had been downloaded to the iPad in the first 65 days of the device going on sale. Amazon, meanwhile, slashed prices on the Kindle this week.

Many analysts have written off the Kindle as a one-trick pony. But, in fact, this might be the Kindle’s redemption. If Amazon is able to price it as a cheap book reader with access to a vast library, it might still be able to thrive on a services-plus model.

But for that it desperately needs to keep publishers happier than it previously has.

If Amazon does that, it might yet become the double-SIM Micromax mobile phone of the e-book market.

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