In any case, irrespective of the reaction of the traditional actors, there are various trends that are likely to accelerate the development of digital publishing in Latin America:

1. A new middle class will be rapidly incorporated into the consumer market, especially in Brazil. Digital products (hardware and content) will no doubt feel the impact, particularly bearing in mind that in a country like Brazil, around 80% of the new middle class considers it “impossible to live without computers”.[1]
2. Various public initiatives will help to reduce the digital gap, especially the plans concerning technological infrastructure for the education sector, such as the Plan Ceibal (Uruguay) and the Plan Conectar Igualdad (Argentina).
3. The promotion of local production in free trade zones such as Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) or Manaus (Brazil) will speed up the appearance of nationally produced hardware designed for electronic reading.
4. There will be a possible expansion of free and open source software, which has been part of the state policies of different countries for several years (Brazil[2] and Venezuela,[3] for example).
5. There may be modifications in legislation: possible exemption from certain taxes on electronic publications, discussions of fixed/variable prices for e-books and wider debate on current copyright laws.
6. The number of events related to digital publishing will increase (book fairs, exhibitions, conferences).
7. The curricula of publishing courses will gradually be updated.
8. Brazil – far and away the country that invests the most in R&D in the region –[4] will play a leading role in both developing electronic reading hardware as well as creating content platforms.
9. Local actors will increasingly compete with platforms from Spain and the US, and their success or failure will depend to a large extent on the quality of the links they manage to establish with the other domestic players: authors, publishers, booksellers, programmers, web designers and videogame developers.