[pwjone1]

The Google Bookstore deal with local bookstores:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/bu...okstore&st=cse

got me to thinking about what an eBookstore might look like. The web model is pretty obvious and out there already. But what is the bricks & mortar equivalent? I think that ultimately it might go something like this:

1. Series of LCD screens (24-30") with connections to view books online
2. Slaved to a bigger screen going through with Video of the latest books
3. Privacy walls or screens of some sort (so that the neighboring cubicle cannot tell what you're looking at)
4. Some sort of comfortable, adjustable chair, or easy chair for you to sit on
5. For maybe 30% of the LCD stations, you'd have a 2nd. seat (or a loveseat) for someone to have a look, and also probably a few free chairs for a 3rd. seat to be rolled over
6. At the end of the row, an indicator map showing which station was open (sensors in the seats would automatically detect if someone was there)
7. Prospective buyer comes in, sees where they can seat, maybe an ad or two for a book, goes and sits down.
8. Optionally a RFID card or B&N card or whatever would be detected or swiped, or any major credit card, and they'd have you setup and references.
9. Screen would say "Hello, Mr. Jones, show some books of interest, etc."
10. You could browse thru or talk to the screen, tell it what you wanted.
11. You could browse thru the book, by screen, keyboard, or spoken word
12. If you wanted a coffee, you could order it up (what you like is stored), they bring it to your station.
13. NYTimes book review, other recommendations, etc., would be available.
14. If you wanted to talk with someone, click and they'd come over (or better, they'd come up on the screen, and you could talk with them)
15. Connections to Librarything or Shelfari, so you could check if you have the book (also used to build preference lists for recomenadations (ex.: you like author Such N. So, and he has a new book out, ....)
16. Ordering (eBook or regular book) would be just a click or two away.
17. If you had an eBook reader with you, it would include downloading to it.
18. If you were giving the book as a present, the system could check if they already had it.

I don't see customers roaming the aisles and leafing through physical books much longer. Maybe 10 years or so. But I think the model will shift over, and it becomes more a question of how the book is selected and purchased. For some, it would be online. But for others, I think it shifts over to more a library type model, with reading stations, etc. There are people that will want to spend time in a bookstore, leafing through pages, and this gives it to them.