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January 6, 2009
eBooks
Chris Andrews at Gutenberg.com wrote this posting this week (The full posting is behind the link)
20 Reasons Why 2009 Will Be The Year of the Ebook
2009 is the “Year of the Ebook.” Here, in no particular order, is why:
1. NEW EBOOK READERS WILL MAKE LAPTOPS AND IPHONES LOOK OLD
2. CRITICAL MASS HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, NOW ITS ABOUT GROWTH (see the Overdrive link below)
3. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE DIGITAL INK FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THEY WILL LOVE IT
4. IF THERE’S ONE THING EVERYONE WANTS NOW, IT’S COMFORT
5. WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT IT? – NOW THAT’S PRACTICAL
6. DO YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD 1 MOVIE OR 1,000 EBOOKS?
7. THE MONEY PEOPLE: COST OF ENTRY IS STILL LOW, POTENTIAL HIGH
8. A MILLION EBOOKS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: IT’S THE “OTHER INTERNET”
9. THE BOOK IS JUST A FORMAT, NO DIFFERENT THAN A CD, VHS, OR DVD
10. ONE WORD: POWER
11. AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS, AND DISTRIBUTORS BENEFIT FINANCIALLY
12. PLAYING AROUND WITH BOOKS IS OK, READING THEM IS BETTER
13. A TRULY GREEN TECHNOLOGY – WITHOUT EVEN TRYING
14. WITH A CHALLENGING ECONOMY, COMPANIES WILL LOOK TO ENTER EBOOK BUSINESS
15. TRY IT ONCE, YOU’RE HOOKED FOR GOOD
16. THE IPHONE, NINTENDO DS WILL INSTANTLY EXPOSE AND PROMOTE EBOOKS
17. RIGHTS FIGHTS: IT’S ALL-GOOD WITH EBOOKS
18. THE HUGE NUMBER OF FREE EBOOKS AVAILABLE
19. A NEW GENERATION OF INDEPENDENT AUTHORS WILL NOW COME FORWARD
20. IT’S THE CONTENT, STUPID
Well there's something to debate. I'll certainly know better soon. Wifeypoo got me the latest (and now sold-out like a Kindle) Sony Reader for Christmas. I'm just seting it up now. Now I have my own to use and load instead of just friend's and trial versions.
Oh, and this little nugget came through to me today too:
Overdrive alone announced that 237 million website ebook pages viewed by library patrons for download media (76 percent growth over 2007); 4.2 billion minutes of audiobooks; patron sessions exceeded 30 million (63 percent growth over 2007); number of new users increased by 45 percent over 2007 and this included iPod, Mac and iPhone compatible ebooks. Their press release also covered the top sellers/downloads (Surprise! Twilight is at #1). And that's just at Overdrive's 8500 global clients. It's all small when compared to print but there was a time when horses outnumbered cars. Besides, nostalgia aside, reading is reading.
I'll play with more my Sony Reader and let you know what I think.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at January 6, 2009 2:52 PM
Comments
As someone who has also recently been playing with a Sony E-Book Reader, I wonder whether you see any future role for libraries in the e-book arena - above and beyond the general tech support, general access and literature promotion angles.
My early impression is that the market for e-book content is shaping up rather like the market for mp3 audio, in the sense that the supplier-to-customer relationship doesn't obviously have any space within it for a library service to establish a middle-man role.
Posted by: Philip Jones at January 7, 2009 11:48 AM
I am pretty sure that someone has said this very thing every year for the past decade. I will believe it when I see it.
Posted by: Ryan at January 7, 2009 1:31 PM
Off the top of my head, I can see so many roles for libraries in ebooks! Why would any library wirth its salt not use a new format? For example any library that doesn't provide access to electronic articles or websites is pathetic. When millions of ebooks are online, many for free and many books being published in e-format only, any library that doesn't preserve, collect, organize, link from their OPAC, and promote the format is engaging in ostrich syndrome. I think the analogy is the one where government e-documents disappewar from the web and remain totally gone unless libraries and others retain and prrserve. And with Overdrive alone having 8500 library e-format clients is not an insignificant beach head. The fact that there is a consumer market too is irrelvant - bookstores and libraries have always co-existed and some publishers depend on the library market more and others on consumer. And, preserving the cultural record is not even on the consumer or bookstore radar.
SA
Posted by: Stephen Abram at January 8, 2009 10:30 AM
Some people believe it when they see it and use that as a reason to delay planning. Some people look ahead. I tend to be the personality that needs to anticipate. Whether 2009 is the tipping point year for ebook adoption is truly debatable. However, it's something to keep an eye on and to determine when it becomes a significant program lie. The enterprises that successfully predicted the end of CD for MP3 and VHS for DVD and DVD for streaming, ensured their continuing success. Libraries have had to balance the transition from print and e-articles. The organizations that don't anticipate don't exist anymore.
Posted by: Stephen Abram at January 8, 2009 10:39 AM