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Bob Russell · 02-26-2006, 01:37 PM

Hi Luag! Glad to have you not just as a reader but a participant. Very nice first post.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple does come out with it's own ebook reader, and it certainly has the infrastructure to handle the store side of things for the content. It's probably inevitable, and just a matter of how and when they jump in. I think they may start out by including ebooks as part of the feature set of future iPods. The screens will be getting better and better as they add multimedia functionality.

We've been hearing about ebooks in the mainstream being just around the corner for a while, but obviously the technology is taking a while to mature. It's coming, but just not as quickly as we would like. Apple could easily become a big part of bringing it faster (with iBooks as you say!), as maybe Sony will be also. But when nice e-ink devices in color become common and inexpensive we'll really see a big jump into the mainstream.

Every bit of new product news and marketing buzz and trade talk is another step closer to getting mainstream public to think about ebooks in a new way. Hopefully, there won't be a popular "bad" product that tarnishes the ebook image too much. That sort of thing might actually slow down adoption. But one way or another, it's coming!

02-26-2006, 01:37 PM	#2
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Hi Luag! Glad to have you not just as a reader but a participant. Very nice first post. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple does come out with it's own ebook reader, and it certainly has the infrastructure to handle the store side of things for the content. It's probably inevitable, and just a matter of how and when they jump in. I think they may start out by including ebooks as part of the feature set of future iPods. The screens will be getting better and better as they add multimedia functionality. We've been hearing about ebooks in the mainstream being just around the corner for a while, but obviously the technology is taking a while to mature. It's coming, but just not as quickly as we would like. Apple could easily become a big part of bringing it faster (with iBooks as you say!), as maybe Sony will be also. But when nice e-ink devices in color become common and inexpensive we'll really see a big jump into the mainstream. Every bit of new product news and marketing buzz and trade talk is another step closer to getting mainstream public to think about ebooks in a new way. Hopefully, there won't be a popular "bad" product that tarnishes the ebook image too much. That sort of thing might actually slow down adoption. But one way or another, it's coming!