|
As a practical matter, Sony's first dedicated ereader marks the beginning of the industry as it legitimized the gadget as mainstream. Sony is as mainstream as you can get.
But had it ended there, it might have ended there.
As a practical matter, Amazon's first dedicated ereader marks the legitimizing of the industry over-all. Amazon brought credibility that there was a future for these "gadgets". Most importantly, Amazon's presence showed is was possible to create a viable economic ecosystem to support ebooks and ereading.
Yup, many other players, all smaller; and other episodes in the birthing of the industry, some crucial -- like Project Gutenberg. But these two players -- Sony and Amazon -- "made it so".
|