The original Sony Reader, available in the US in 2006, was probably the first faint sign, followed by the appearance of the Kindle in 2007.
Then, as soon as 2010 hit, the New Year predictions by publishing industry experts all included numerous mentions of ebooks. And this year's CES was full of eReaders.
Today there were a couple of development. First, Amazon opened their digital publishing platform to publishers in other countries. (I hope they have checks in place to prevent a repeat of the 1984 debacle).
Next, an industry survey of book buying habits showed that 20% of book buyers have switched to buying ebooks.
On the other hand, today also brought this announcement that Xerox was teaming up with the manufacturer of the Espresso POD machine, which means print is adapting, a good sign for long term survival. So maybe the Apocalypse is, if not on hold, at least not a done deal.
