Will 2009 see mass market adoption of electronic book readers such as the wonder that is the Sony Reader?
For those of us on TechRadar that have had the pleasure of living with a Sony Reader in 2008, we can only hope that the coming years will see these wonderful gadgets find their ways into the hands of the millions of avid readers worldwide.
Robert McCrum, respected literary editor of The Observer, is also a huge fan of the e-book, posing the basic (but fundamentally vital) question this week: "will people carry on buying books?"
"Framed like that, it's a no-brainer," writes McCrum.
ePoetry and human DNA
"Of course we can't stop reading. Of course there'll be a market for books. But what kind of books?" is what McCrum wants to know.
"People who read books will not give up the habit of spending a modest sum on a highly praised new novel or a fine new collection of poems any more than novelists and poets will stop writing fiction or composing verse. The marginal cost of all these activities is comparatively slight, and the passion for narrative, and for poetry – well, it's part of our DNA."
On an even more positive note, McCrum adds that: "Digitisation has yet to affect book consumption, but it will eventually. Ebooks are here to stay."
The "iPod moment" for eBooks
While TechRadar largely agrees with McCrum's assertion that e-readers are currently "the kind of gizmos the trade will use to lighten its load (literally)" and that "the reading public has yet to make the switch" he is surely bang on the money when he claims that "the iPod moment" for books, while it has not yet occurred, is on the near future horizon.
"Again, none of this will be bad for writers. The delivery system will change, but the need for "content" (ghastly term) will be as strong as ever, perhaps stronger: the signs are that we turn to good books for consolation in tough times."
Thank goodness for that then! Books aren't going away. They are just going to get better, cheaper and become far more widely available to greater swathes of humanity than ever before.
Long live the electronic book revolution!
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
char1
January 20th 2009
3. We are seeing a large uptick in the amount of customers chosing eBooks. It takes a bit for them to figure out how to download the first time, and consume the eBook on their computer or Sony Reader device, but once they do, we see repeated purchases and downloads. There is no way the disruptive nature of eBooks (frictionless distribution, no inventory costs, immediate delivery to a consumer) won't RUSH into acceptance. We are seeing 400% growth (per quarter!).
We predice eBooks will be 10% of the book publishing industry in 3 years.
Textbooks will fall first. Colleges and professors are banding together and taking whole student bodies with them (think computer toting millenials.)
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zoydwheeler
December 22nd 2008
2. Yes, of course it will. That much is fairly obvious.
The tipping point (as with iPods and MP3 players) will not come until the consumers (both those that buy books regularly or just now and then) realise that they can get what they are buying as physical media (CDs/DVDs/printed books) cheaper/better/more accessible as digital media.
Isn't it the same with videogames too? With a large mass market of consumers currently buying discs and DS carts very quickly set to switch to downloads over the next year or two? (In fact, I imagine this market will make the switch much faster than book buyers and readers, many of whom will take much longer to embrace e-ink!).
And then on top of all that of course, you have all the full (dead) weight of the print publishing industry trying to stop/stall this from happening, because they cannot accept that people don't somehow naturally, LIKE dead trees better.
I believe it is called inertia. When many people have a vested interest in not making a change that is (in the longer run) for the greater good.
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robmcm
December 22nd 2008
1. The only way these things will really take off with the general public is by the books being cheap. At the moment they are full RRP, where as most hard backs are one some sort of offer until they become paperbacks.
Really they should be a few quid, and then it would be worth the £200 investment.
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