[WEB4LIB] Re: eBooks can exist with...

[Dan Lester]

Wednesday, September 26, 2001, 10:53:16 AM, you wrote:

Wnro> Am I predicting that no dedicated ebook appliance will ever succeed?
Wnro> Absolutely not. I don't do predictions, and something like the GoBook could
Wnro> still have a bright future in the textbook market (maybe). Am I agreeing
Wnro> with others that there's less and less evidence that printed books are at
Wnro> the end of their era? You got it. But then, I don't love printed books; I
Wnro> just think they're great tools for some tasks.

And, as Walt undoubtedly knows, "Most things predicted never happen;
most things that happen were never predicted."

Wnro> Could there be some wholly unpredictable occurrence that will change all
Wnro> this? Absolutely. Life is like that, sometimes.

Absolutely, and particularly true for recent events.

I said previously that ebooks would be like the 8 tracks.  But, as
"the other Dan" (Messer) pointed out, 8 tracks made some serious
inroads for a few years.  Perhaps a better analogy, though less
familiar to the non-audiophiles (which Walt Crawford certainly is),
the ebooks will be like the Quad Stereo discs that were promoted for a
while and never caught on for a host of reasons.  Or for a slightly
more familiar technology, the Laser Disks of fairly recent memory.

cheers

dan, who works in analogies, and occasionally predictions


-- 
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!