Quote:
Originally Posted by Sregener
If eBooks had the same functionality as pBooks, I don't think it would be an argument. The reality is that the eBook cannot be loaned as many times as you wish, resold, or given away after you've read it. Thus, I think people perceive the value as lower for a pBook. "I might really love this and want to share it with others," is a factor that holds me back from buying many eBooks. Oddly, then, the ebooks I'm most likely to buy are the ones I expect to like the least.
In exchange for that lower value, we expect a lower price. And the justification for the expected lower price is the fact that printing and shipping and storing and disposing of unsold copies are all costs that don't exist with eBooks. So we expect that because costs *and* functionality are lower, the price should reflect that reality.
There are people who value an eBook higher than a pBook, for portability and storability reasons. But I think they're the exception, not the rule.
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I don't see either eBooks or pBooks as having higher value; they share many values (particularly the content) and have different ones too.
Any of these values may/will hold a different weight for different people. I don't think those who value eBooks equally with pBooks are in the minority of those who utilize both (and are not 100% in one camp or another).
The pBook values you mention: easily loaned, sold, or given away hold almost no value
for me.
eBooks, on the the other hand, have not just portability and storability on their side, but durability. I'm a re-reader and have read to death multiple copies of some books. So having a copy that won't wear, yellow, stain, crack, tear, spindle, mutilate, fold, etc. Is of great value to me. Admittedly, some of those high-use volumes I have also invested in quality hardcover editions of (instead of or in addition).
Even when it comes to costs of production (since the industry is so cagey about releasing actual figures) a lot of personal perception goes into it. Some will see that there are no physical costs to a eBook, so it must be lower cost to produce. Others will see the extra time/costs/steps it takes to produce simultaneous print and electronic editions as offsetting to an extent (though not completely, I'm sure) the savings from distribution/printing.
But the value proposition of any book purchase relies heavily on personal factors and perceptions.
Everyone just has to make that purchase decision on their own.