Printed books also increased the circulation of books compared to the handwritten versions as well. I mean if it takes a yr or two to hand write one copy of a book and it only takes a matter of days to print the same book (back when printing 1st started in bulk) you are going to increase the # of copies which will bring the price per copy down, and ebooks certainly should continue that trend I would think since 1000's of people can download a copy of the same book in mere minutes as opposed to how long it would take the same # of printed copies to reach the reading public. I think what it really comes down to is people don't like to change. Doing the same old thing as always has been is comfortable. You see the same thing in scientific progress. A new theory doesn't become established because people automatically accept it, but because those who clung to the old way of thinking about how the world works die off and the next generation grows up with the 'new theory' of how things work.The idea that the earth goes round the sun and not vice versa is a good example of this. The old established way of thinking said the sun went round the earth and it took quite a while for the correct model of the solar system to be accepted. I can see the pbook vs. ebook situation going much the same way. In a few generations pbooks will be antiques and libraries like what people have been known to frequent for the last few centuries will be museum exhibits.
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Originally Posted by Worldwalker
Printed books cut into the sales of hand-written books, too. And codices really munged up the sales of scrolls. Technology happens.
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