I think Flint misses several key and interconnected advantages of e-books. He boils the benefit of the digital nature of e-books down to "storage," but I think there's much more to it than the impact on shelf-space:
- Purchasing convenience. No trekking to a brick-and-mortar store, no waiting for a shipment to arrive through the mail -- just buy on-line and read immediately. Devices like the Kindle with ubiquitous data network access make this even more so.
- Instant accessibility. Your entire e-library is available all the time, no matter where you are, and no book is ever misplaced. The current generation of devices isn't quite there yet (except perhaps the Kindle?), but that's just a software and interface issue.
- Portability. Every book is as convenient to carry around as a mass-market paperback. Moreover, the e-book is easier to pick up and read in random spare moments -- turn on your device and you're instantly at your place, turn it off and it saves where you were.
- Books never need go out-of-print. E-books make it more possible to keep books available regardless of the vagaries of the market. One could envision even in the relatively short-term books remaining available only as e-books after their print run has ended. (Although my understanding of this has changed since Charles Stross mentioned in another thread here that author-publisher contracts usually specify e-book sales falling below a certain level as indicating it has fallen "out-of-print.")
Most of the limitations Flint mentions are temporary too. The industry will sort out its DRM and format problems -- hell, if not for the DMCA those would already be non-issues. Better devices and -- more importantly -- more
ubiquitous devices will steadily appear. As devices like cell phones become more capable of serving as e-book readers the whole "you need a device first" problem will become less and less of an issue.
Forward the e-book revolution!
-Marshall