When Palm split into into palmOne and PalmSource last year, PalmSource, the operating system side of the company took Palm's eBook store, Palm Digital Media, with it.

Subsiquetnly, PalmSource sold Palm Digital Media to PowerByHand, one of the largest providers of mobile content and applications, and its PalmGear division, which then went ahead and rechristened Palm Digital Media as eReader.com.

Well it looks like Palm Digital Media has come full circle, as PowerByHand has signed on to create palmOne's very own eBook store with content provided by PowerByHand's eReader.com. palmOne already provided its customers with access to PowerByHand's eReader (formerly Palm Reader) in the box with most of its devices.

Visitors to the new eBook store can choose from more than 13,000 popular eBook titles in more than 40 categories, including bestsellers and new releases, such as "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, a publication of Doubleday and a division of Random House, "My Life" by Bill Clinton, published by the Knopf division of Random House, and Stephen King's "Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI," published by Simon & Schuster.

The Open eBook Forum recently reported that eBooks sold for the first quarter 2004 were up 46% and eBook revenues were up 28% over the same quarter in 2003. A total of 421,955 eBooks were sold during the first quarter compared to 288,440 units during the same period last year.

In terms of revenues, $3,233,220 in sales were logged by retailers, a 28% increase over the same period in 2003 during which time retailers reported $2,516,469 on sales of eBooks. “This quarter eBooks have hit a new high mark for sales,” stated Open eBook Forum President Steve Potash. “eBooks represent the fastest growing segment of the publishing industry,” he added.