Re: "The Elusive E-book"

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Aaron Walker <[email protected]> wrote:


> Why do you feel e-books should have less value than paper books?


Whether they *should* or not is immaterial. They *do* have less value than
paper books, because there is less demand for them, and there is less demand
for them because not as many people want them.

To early adopters such as ourselves, an ebook is more convenient than a
paper book. But the average consumer couldn't care less; they would rather
have something they can read without needing batteries, or that they won't
be too upset if they drop in the ocean or leave on the bus. (And even the
$110 eBookWise is still too expensive for that.) Or they're just plain
emotionally attached to the paper form factor (you can tell this because
they will say things like "but it doesn't *smell* like a book!") and there's
not much you can do with them. When you can't *give* ebooks away (except as
a preview for printed books) then you know the overall demand just isn't
there.

Until you get something that's cheap and good enough that more people will
start wanting ebooks for their own sake rather than to try before they buy
paper books, I don't see that changing. It's just a fact of life.

-- 
Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody help,
Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | I'm trapped in
[email protected] | Skype, Gizmo: Robotech_Master | a sig file!
[email protected] | Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 |


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