Quote:
Originally Posted by Sagacity
MaggieScratch Wrote:
--- I agree that the reader can be more expensive *if* the books are affordably priced.* ---
Well, I don't think so!
The price of a book is not a parametre to the price of a reader...just try to look at your cellphones or smartphones: Did you consider buying your last phone because of the (low) pricing on MMS, SMS , Paging or even the price per call/minute?
I think not!
You might just needed a device to handle the content and services provided.
And actually you do expect any device to be able to handle this.
I mean: Who's is buying a mobile phone just to make phonecalls?
My conclusion is, that the publishing industri and the manufactorers of the reding devices could learn a lot by looking at the selling processes of the 'mobilephone' industry.
One way they do this, is that the Service and Content Providers sell you a fixed subscrition period and at the same time give you an expensive phone for 1 $.
Reading is not just reading:
It's the expanded features and services provided by the reader device that sells the book.
Ruggero
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My husband thought he was one of those people who just wanted a phone. We were changing providers and I was showing him all the different phones and he said it was all just silly. He wanted a phone that was a phone and that's it. Ring, make calls, get voicemail. None of this frivolous texting or web surfing. Then we went into the store and I started playing around with the smartphone that I wanted. In about 5 minutes we had two of those babies up at the register. It was about 3x more than the phone he wanted and a little extra money each month for the service, but when he actually experienced what he could do, it made sense to him. I think that's a tough gap ebooks have to bridge right now. People look at what they have and think, "Well, that's good enough." But if you could really make them feel the potential, then ebooks could have a market to work with.
He was also one of those people who didn't think he'd use an mp3 player until I put one in his hands and now he won't be without it. Remember when those were just for us geek early-adopters? Now who doesn't have one? I bet you within a week of me buying an e-ink reader, we'll have two. He reads several books a week (mostly sci-fi). He's the ideal customer for ebooks, especially with a subscription model. He just doesn't know it yet.