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I'm not sure what to do with that stat -- 77,000 downloads a day. It doesn't sound like a new piece of info from Apple but rather the author's reformulation of one of Apple's teaser tidbits a while back. He doesn't say "In the first three months of iPad availability, Apple sold 77,000 ebooks per day". I note he claims the "fifth of the market" which is a variant on Apple's claim in May of 20% of the ebook market. So, again, I'm just not sure this is a new fact at all or even reflects recent activity.
Sony's bookstore not long ago talked about the milestone of 10 million books "downloaded" (press release, May 27, 2010).
One of the things I liked about the much discussed Amazon stats is that they specifically called out "purchased" books, leaving free downloads out of the picture. Then there was the 1 million Steig Larsson and nearly 1 million James Patterson ebooks. Perhaps a few of those were free but most would be genuine commercial sales.
The article does raise the fear -- without exactly putting it this way -- that more and more young people will "lose literacy" as encounters with any sort of "long form" text disappear in a onslaught of video and aural bombardment and interaction. Critical thinking is a skill developed learning to take a longer view, and time to consider multiple aspects. Slicing everything into bite sized pieces doesn't lay the ground work for that training. One shudders to think of what would be made of Wind in the Willows as it is iPad-ized.
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