[WEB4LIB] Re: "As TV didn't destroy radio, eBooks can exist with print"

[Daniel Messer]

    Nice analogy. :) But I wonder if they will even get that far. I'm just
old enough to remember the fading of 8 tracks from the scene and the thing
is that they were extremely popular for a time. Most everyone either had
or wanted an 8 track player and a decent collection of 8 track tapes. Cars
were made with 8 track players and decent stereos came with the player as
well.
    That's just not happening with e-books. From the people I've talked to
a about them, the overwhelming consensus is that they could go the rest of
their lives never owning an e-book and be perfectly happy with that. They
just don't see the point. Most feel that there's really nothing better
than a regular book that an e-book has to offer. You have to purchase the
device itself, which runs over US$100 most of the time, and then you pay
pretty much the same price for the e-book itself that you would for the
regular print work. Where's the advantage? And to carry back to the
analogy of cars and 8 tracks... Many fine computers are produced today
where the topic of e-book software never came up a the designers meeting.
If there's no interest in providing the devices as a part of a computer
package, then the prospect is greatly limited. Heck you can get most
anything with a new computer: MP3 players, digital cameras, scanners, film
scanners, digital video studios, etc. I've yet to see one major computer
manufacturer offer e-book devices as part of a package for a new system.

Dan

Dan Lester wrote:

> Ebooks on the web, maybe.  Quick printing of hardcopy books, possibly,
> even probably.
>
> Ebooks as devices (at least any of the devices yet produced) will
> quickly become the 8 track players of the early 21st century.
>
> dan
>
> Monday, September 24, 2001, 11:15:09 AM, you wrote:
>
> CPH> "The post-Internet publishing world is going through many
> CPH> changes; one of them is the emergence of the electronic book
> CPH> or eBook."
>
> CPH> http://www.newspress.com/business/0924logan.htm
>
> --
> Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
> 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
> www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!

--
Mondai wa
The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer, Technologies Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 452-8541 x712
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                     -Hunter S. Thompson