According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, in the past year the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%. At the same time, the number of those who read printed books in the previous 12 months fell from 72% of the population ages 16 and older to 67%.

According to a just released study from Weber Shandwick with KRC Research, 65% of potential consumer electronics purchasers are inspired by a consumer review to select a brand that had not been part of their original consideration. And, the average buyer consults 11 consumer reviews on the path to purchase.

According to comScore, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the period ending November 2012, Samsung is the top handset manufacturer overall with 26.9% market share. Google Android continued to lead among smartphone platforms, accounting for 53.7% of smartphone subscribers, while Apple secured 35%.

According to the PQ Media Global Product Placement Spending Forecast 2012-2016, US marketers continue to up their investment in product placement to connect with harder-to-reach, multitasking consumers who are using digital and wireless technology to consume content more often and to view advertising less frequently.

According to the Return Path global bi-annual mobile email report, 37% of people are now opening email on mobile devices compared with the 30% opening through webmail in a browser. Mobile open share has increased 300% since 2010, and shows no sign of slowing, says the report, with four out of 10 emails sent being read on a mobile device.

A new StrongMail survey, conducted via SurveyMonkey, reflects the attitudes of business leaders in regards to their planned marketing budgets, priorities and challenges for 2013, as well as data on the top email marketing tactics to be employed for the current 2012 holiday shopping season. According to the survey, total marketing budgets are set to rise in 2013, with 45% of companies increasing and 44% maintaining current levels.

According to a new study by HubSpot about the impact on social media engagement using visuals in social content, photos on Facebook Pages received 53% more Likes than the average post, while photo posts attracted 104% more comments than the average post. The study evaluated 8,800 Facebook posts from B2B and B2C companies comparing Likes-per-photo to overall average Likes-per-post.

According to Martini Media, announcing the results of their latest Affluent Online Shopper Index Powered by comScore, examining the online holiday shopping behaviors of the online affluent audience, affluent shoppers are 40% more likely to make a purchase on luxury retail sites; spend 80% more on average; are 15% more likely to make an online purchase across all categories than less affluent shoppers; and, on average, spent 19% more per purchase.

Mobile shoppers are expecting more from retailers according to a new study by Latitude, Next-Gen Retail: Mobile & Beyond. Smartphones and tablets aren't just making shopping more convenient and real-time; they're fundamentally changing how people think about shopping. Mobile shopping makes people feel more relaxed, productive and informed, as well as more open-minded and receptive to discovering new things, says the report

According to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG), 52% of households in the US that subscribe to a multi-channel video service have a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), compared to 4% of TV households that do not subscribe to a multi-channel video service. In addition, 43% of all households with a DVR now have DVR on more than one TV set.