If you’re a book lover, then you are no doubt cursing the ongoing developments regarding the Kindle, which is threatening to do to books what the iPod has done to albums. For those of you with half finished novels all over your flat, you’re probably still confused as to why anyone would possibly want to use a reading device to turn pages when you could just gaze at an elegant cover, open a dog eared copy and read the same way people have been doing it for half a millennium.

But Amazon, maker of the Kindle, claims that while sales of good old fashioned books are down, those who own the heavily hyped reading device are buying three times the number of books compared to what they purchased before owning the Kindle. One possibility for this rise may simply be the novelty of the gadget, where one-handed reading can finally be accomplished and downloading can be done instantly. Another reason may be the sheer scope: owners can now carry 1,500 titles in a single handheld Kindle and browse from a worldwide store that includes more than 300,000 books, newspaper subscriptions, magazines and blogs.

For modernists, this is manna from heaven. That is, until one realises that Amazon’s Kindle isn’t the only reader on or about to enter the market. It’s competing with, among others, Sony’s eReader, which has sold 300,000 copies, the IRex iLiad, on which a person can write notes, and bookstore giant Barnes and Noble, who launched the Nook, a reading device which boasts two screens and even allows you to “lend” a digital book to a friend with another Nook.

Another reading device expected to be launched in the near future has everybody watching with equal parts excitement and dread. To date, nobody really knows what capabilities Apple’s “tablet” will have or how it might change the publishing industry. But given the current competition and the way publishers aren’t quite sure how to handle this new technology yet, there are plenty of reasons why readers and publishers alike should be thrilled and worried.

One needs look no further than the music industry (or Betamax vs. VHS before that) to see how this might play out. Where CDs were once a multi-billion dollar a year revenue stream for the six main major record labels, their collective lack of awareness about the possibilities that the internet offered, combined with their self interest in pursuing certain formats, has led to an erosion of sales. Today, those six major labels are down to four, many major music retail outlets have closed and the majority of recording artists don’t even consider their recorded work to be financially viable—instead they often use it as a marketing tool for their more lucrative live shows.

Even in the age of iTunes, which is currently the world’s largest online music store for legitimate music downloads, there are still major recording artists who have refused to release their entire catalogue online. Rock act Led Zeppelin is one famous hold out, as are The Beatles (though that may change soon). And, in their zeal to pursue other formats, Universal, the world’s biggest record label, has long been in a dispute with iTunes over the format of songs that they release online.

It doesn’t take much to see the same scenario plaguing the publishing world. First, since few people are going to splash out on more than one reading device (at US$200-400 a piece for gadgets that essentially have the same function), only a handful of market leaders will be around for the long haul. So when Barnes and Noble potentially begins to undercut book download prices on special authors that Sony doesn’t have relationships with at all, the fallout could get nasty. And, what’s a consumer supposed to do with a discontinued eReader that breaks and has no access to their digital library anymore? One can envision that if the battles really heat up, frustrated consumers will merely download digital copies of their favourite bestseller, creating their own kind of illegal industry.

To the victorious hardware manufacturer will go the publishing spoils, and that could mean an exciting set of possibilities for authors, newspapers and magazines. Stephen King has already plunged straight in with Amazon’s Kindle by publishing a story that was exclusively available on that reading device. Google, in announcing its plans to enter the digital publishing arena next year, has claimed that it will give 63% of its revenues to publishers. Meanwhile, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is said to have been meeting with the heads of the different device makers to see how he will transform such publications as The Sun and New York Post onto eReaders in the near future.

How and what form those transformations take place could make or break our reading habits. Just imagine reading favourite magazines like Vanity Fair or GQ with additional behind the scenes video footage from an article. For that matter, the New York Times has recently reported that Simon and Schuster is currently developing “vooks” which will include videos to supplement book storylines. For all involved—both publishers and consumers—this could usher in a brilliant new age where expensive printing costs and paper, not to mention clutter, are a thing of the past. One thing’s for certain: consumers aren’t going to tolerate another industry that has battles over gadgets, formats, subscriptions and delivery methods. So, the publishing world has to get it right. Otherwise, that good old- fashioned book might turn out to be the best read of all.