ReadWriteWeb

In a new study from eMarketer.com, researchers found that by the end of 2011, 33.7 million Americans will use a tablet at least once a month. This is an increase of 158.6% since 2010, when the iPad was first released. The study estimates a 63.8% increase in users to 54.8 million by 2012. By 2014, that number will shoot up to 89.5 million. A total 35.6% of Internet users will use an iPad at least once per month by the year 2014.

Today, tablets are shared. For example, magazine discovery app Zite released a multiple sign-in option after discovering that 30% of iPad users shared their device with one or more people. According to eMarketer's data, however, as tablet adoption continues, tablets will move to single-use, much like the smartphones of today.

There's an interesting discussion brewing in the wake of some of the comparison articles recently published about the latest Android tablet devices, including Amazon's Kindle Fire. I'm on record here as liking what I saw from the initial publication of Joshua Topolsky's "revenge" upon Engadget, The Verge, and I'd be blind if I didn't point out that competitor publications may feel they have something to gain by casting The Verge in a negative light. That's by way of disclaimer.

That said, I think the discussion about what's important in a product review is an important one to have, and we need to have it periodically. The current debate stems from whether device specifications - particularly with respect to this positive recommendation of the iPhone 4S by Consumer Reports and this comparison of Kindle, Nook, and iPad tablets by The Verge - truly matter nowadays with respect to buyers' decisions.

With less than a week to go before Amazon starts shipping its Kindle Fire tablet, the company today announced the inclusion of several more Android apps. The list of new additions includes Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, Twitter and many other hugely popular apps.

Quite a few of the applications Amazon announced today are games. Apps from Zynga, EA, Rovio and a number of other mobile game makers are going to be included on the Kindle Fire, which substantially expands the catalog of games available on the device.

Amazon announced today that the new range of Kindles is coming to over 16,000 U.S. retail stores. The usual big-box and medium-box outlets will carry Amazon's whole family of media devices.

The basic new Kindle - which sells for $79 with ads and $109 without - has been available in stores since just after launch on September 28. Now the $99/139 Kindle Touch and the $199 Kindle Fire tablet will appear on physical shelves.

Barnes and Noble today unveiled their answer to Amazon's forthcoming Kindle Fire. The Nook Tablet is a full-color, 7-inch touchscreen media tablet that has much in common with the Kindle Fire. Both devices start shipping in just over a week.

Whereas Amazon launched a completely new product when it revealed the Fire, Barnes and Noble is really just upgrading its existing Nook Color and finally adding the word "tablet" to its name. In the launch presentation, CEO William Lynch Jr could hardly have made it more obvious who the company is gunning for here. He made several direct references to Amazon and the Kindle Fire, which he unsurprisingly dismissed as an inferior product.

Amazon threw down the gauntlet against terrestrial competitors today by announcing that Kindle and Kindle app customers can borrow and purchase Kindle books from more than 11,000 local libraries in the United States.

In essence, these first 11,000 local libraries just became a chain of local bookstores for Amazon's catalog of virtual books.

Today, Barnes & Noble has been revealed to be the first-ever location where you can unlock the free Mighty Eagle character in Angry Birds Magic, the new game from franchise creators Rovio. The idea behind Angry Birds Magic is to use technology, like GPS and NFC (near field communication), to connect gamers with their surroundings in order to augment gameplay and unlock special location-based rewards.

The publishing and bookseller world as a whole has seen substantial shake-up over the last few years: the rise of the e-book, the collapse of Borders, for example. And the world's largest bookseller Barnes & Noble has received its own fair share of mixed reviews lately as well. On one hand, the company announced last summer that it was putting itself up for sale in order to boost what it felt were undervalued shares. On the other hand, Barnes & Noble has had a string of wins in the digital realm, most recently when Consumer Reports ranked its e-reader the Nook over competitor Amazon's Kindle.

So eyes were on the Barnes & Noble quarterly earnings report today, particularly in light of an offer from Liberty Media to acquire the company. And again, the news was mixed.

There are some conflicting stories coming out the BookExpo America today about Google's plans for Google Books: one story speculating that Google may be planning an e-book rental service and another speculating that Google may be closing its e-bookstore.

The shuttering of the e-bookstore was something that Melville House Publishing wrote about today, contending that publishers are finding it difficult to get started in the bookstore and that Google has pulled its developers from the project. When ReadWriteWeb asked Google to comment, the company responded, "We refuse to comment on rumor and speculation," pointing to a blog post from Monday touting some of the successes from the first 6 months of the Google Books program: three million free Google eBooks and 250 independent booksellers selling them, for example.

But more interesting - although difficult to say if more plausible - is the possibility of an e-book rental service.

Barnes & Noble announced a new version of its Nook e-reader today that is aimed squarely at challenging the dominance of Amazon's Kindle in the e-reader market. The new Nook has a six-inch display - as does the Kindle - but the Nook ditches the keyboard for a touchscreen interface.

That interface might make the Nook seem more tablet than e-reader at first glance, but despite running on the Android operating system, the new device is a dedicated e-reader. (That is, of course, until someone roots it and opens more of the Android functionality.) But as a dedicated e-reader, the improvements to this version make it very competitive with the Kindle. The new Nook boasts a lighter and thinner design than the Nook Wi-Fi 1st Edition, the device that this update replaces.