Amazon Kindle

Lorie-A · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: Amazon Kindle

What's everyone think about Kindle? and other sort of electronic book readers?

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/technology/techspecial2/05kindle.html>
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI73MA/>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/business/20bookxx.html>

I watched a CBC doc about paper books possibly one day disappearing, and though I'm sentimental, like I'd miss that experience of a library full of books, a paperback in your bag, etc. but I do think it's possibly the way the reading experience is heading ! It's good environmentally, but, just thinking about it, a world with smaller libraries maybe? and you can't share your books or read them after like 10 years (?), so.. It's a brilliant concept, but it's kinda frightening to be honest.

There's no glare from the screen, visually it's supposed to seem nearly the same as paper.

I'm really excited for it, but like all first-edition technology, I'm a bit wary to buy it right away. I'd prefer to wait for a few more advancements, see 1.0 transform into 4.0, and it's not available outside the US yet.
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mike · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:03 pm Post subject:

I'm against this merely because of the economic side to it.. publishers will sell these virtual books for less money than printed ones, big box store retailers (Indigo, Chapters) and even small book shops will lose customers, and since this stuff is downloaded from the internet - piracy is a sure thing to happen, and ultimately people will get the books for free.
The book stores are already losing profits, this will just add fuel the fire.
I read somewhere that Indigo's (which includes Chapters too) net income is only like $30 mil a year.. what do you think will happen if this technology becomes widespread?
Publishers won't need the middle man (retailers) anymore to sell these ebooks, they'll just sell them directly to the customer.
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my style diary

Lorie-A · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject:

I'm not that concerned about big box retailers to be honest. They monopolise the book retail industry and I really don't think they themselves know what they're doing (i.e. competitive uneconomical price-slashing.) If I'm worried about book retailers I'd be worried about the little independent shops, which already are driven to extinction.
But maybe that's the evolution of retailing, in a way. I don't know if I can compare books to music, but music has went the way of on-line shops.

Like for example, on-line purchase of music has created piracy problems, sure, but I don't think it hurt the music industry, it learned to adapt. It just created music stores on-line - though right now it's dominated by a few on-line music "libraries" I think it'll diversify through competition.

So maybe its natural that book stores will go on-line.
I think traditional book stores will still exist. And traditional local libraries should definitely be preserved.
People still buy CDs and DVDs, even though the media are available on the Internet to buy (or steal!)

But it's not completely analogous, books and music. Because, I for one, think that it's more emotionally difficult, this switch from paper to "computerised ink," because literature and the art of writing is quite hallowed, whereas most contemporary music is seen as a bit more throwaway and constantly changing (and so I'd be more willing to let go of the traditional and turn music into a digitalised format - but not books.)
AND the experience of having a book in your hand, turning the pages, going to a real-life library, that seems irreplaceable.

The role of the publisher will decrease. Maybe that'll affect the quality of books?
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