RE: "The Elusive E-book"

I don't think $11.8 million is something to sneeze at.
 
Yesterday, I saw a report putting the ebook market at $67 million a year and growing.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080502-9999-1n2borders.html
 
I'll stay out on my very lonely limb and say the reason e-books haven't taken off has nothing to do with with endless rantings against the evils of DRM or that "1 in 4 Americans didn't finish a single book last year" but everything to do with the high cost of e-reading devices and publishers still on the fence.
 
eBookWise could be cleaning up the market with their sub $150 e-reading device but most people aren't even aware of it and eBookWise seems not to be inclined to tell anyone. If they did, they'd put pressure on other makers to bring lower priced products to market or lower their current prices.
 
Could Amazon come out with a lower cost Kindle? Sure, drop the whispernet and let the consumer decide if they want this feature and have them pay it directly. 
 
How many more Kindles could they sell if Whispernet was an option that allowed them to lower the price $50 - $100? How could Sony command $299.99 for something with fewer options than the Kindle?
 
They've created a premium market for these devices that will keep casual readers away and dead tree books around for a long time to come. A lot longer than need be now that we have the technology for alternatives.
 
The other reason is publishers are still riding the fence as to how much they want to promote e-books and how fast they want to move to their promotion.
 
One day, e-reading device prices will come down low enough to lure the casual reader, e.g. the people who pick up the latest paperback from Target or Wal-Mart. When that demographic can get a cheap device and know they can get all of the latest releases, then we'll see the upsurge e-book readers, authors and publishers have been expecting.
 
In order for e-books to really take off, the casual reader has to buy in. And the only way they'll be able to buy in is with a lower cost point of entry device that doesn't involve sitting at a computer reading on a screen. 
 
(BTW: That quote thrown around by Steve Jobs continues to bug me. Simple statistics say if 1 in 4 didn't complete a single book last year means 3 in 4 did. That's still a whole lot of books being read. I bet if Apple came out with an iReader, the whole universe would "discover" e-books overnight.) 
 
Aaron J. WalkerPublisher
http://www.walkbroadpublishing.com


To: ebook-community-hHKSG33Tihig7M29m/[email protected]: [email protected]: Wed, 7 May 2008 17:47:20 -0400Subject: [ebook-community] "The Elusive E-book"




"In the 12 years I've been researching electroic publishing, a lot ofpredictions have been made. Had the pundits been correct, half of thereading material today would be delivered electronically. In spite of theserosy predictions, individual e-book sales in 2005 were a mere $11.8million. By comparison, this is about one-tenth the pre-publication salesof the final Harry Potter book."Sottong, Stephen. (2008). "The elusive e-book: are e-books finally readyfor prime time?" =American Libraries=, 39:5, pp. 44-48.OK, a lot of figures pale next to the juggernaut that is Harry Potter.Still, this juxtaposition is a tad jarring. The author concentrates hiscritique on the price of the e-book reader -- SONY and Amazon -- and therelative display (resolution) compared to that of a traditional book. Hecon
 cludes that e-books are not ready for prime time but comprise a "futuredream."The article is not available online but can be read on, y'know, paper. Inyour library.Robert "Still happy with his Gemstar" Harris-- Robert Alan [email protected][Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 






_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live SkyDrive lets you share files with faraway friends.
http://www.windowslive.com/skydrive/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_skydrive_052008

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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