MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Publishers need to push ebook reader adoption

jbenny · 10-16-2007, 03:56 AM

Regarding the statistic that the average person only reads six books a year (if that is really accurate): That number may be true if you are only counting fiction books, or what is on the Best Seller list. However, I think that a lot of people are missing one important point. Even the average person reads quite a bit of other material in the course of a year--magazines, newspapers, work-related documentation, etc.

An e-reader device that could easily handle all of these "other" e-texts, as well as e-books, would find a much wider market. Of course, it would have to be brain-dead simple to get all of this different content onto the device. It would also have to be inexpensive. The economy of scale that a large market brings will help with price.

Another important point: We are still at a stage similar to the early days of automobiles. Those early adopters did not find the needed infrastructure (paved roads, gas stations, motels) when they ventured out on a Sunday drive. For e-reader devices to really become widespread, the needed infrastructure and standards (epub or ?) need to develop in parallel with the hardware before John Q. Public will accept e-readers, as they do MP3 players now.

Speaking of MP3 players, devices like the iPod and similar players prove that lots of people are indeed willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a gadget, if they either perceive it as the latest "cool" thing, or they can find some value in it. Think about it--when did everyone decide that being able to listen to music (or audiobooks) any time and any place was something they had to have?

10-16-2007, 03:56 AM	#11
jbenny Addict Posts: 323 Karma: 358 Join Date: May 2007 Device: Tablet PC and Nokia N800	Regarding the statistic that the average person only reads six books a year (if that is really accurate): That number may be true if you are only counting fiction books, or what is on the Best Seller list. However, I think that a lot of people are missing one important point. Even the average person reads quite a bit of other material in the course of a year--magazines, newspapers, work-related documentation, etc. An e-reader device that could easily handle all of these "other" e-texts, as well as e-books, would find a much wider market. Of course, it would have to be brain-dead simple to get all of this different content onto the device. It would also have to be inexpensive. The economy of scale that a large market brings will help with price. Another important point: We are still at a stage similar to the early days of automobiles. Those early adopters did not find the needed infrastructure (paved roads, gas stations, motels) when they ventured out on a Sunday drive. For e-reader devices to really become widespread, the needed infrastructure and standards (epub or ?) need to develop in parallel with the hardware before John Q. Public will accept e-readers, as they do MP3 players now. Speaking of MP3 players, devices like the iPod and similar players prove that lots of people are indeed willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a gadget, if they either perceive it as the latest "cool" thing, or they can find some value in it. Think about it--when did everyone decide that being able to listen to music (or audiobooks) any time and any place was something they had to have? Last edited by jbenny; 10-16-2007 at 04:05 AM.