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Originally Posted by RWJ
Oy.
On a less bombastic note, as to the potential readership of electronic books: the number of people who read lots of books is appallingly low, and it shows in the general literacy of university students. But reading things other than books is still fairly healthy: newspapers and magazines are read more often than books (although declining) but news content and magazine-style journalism, as well as blogs and other internet-only content are expanding tremendously. A device that allows people easily to transfer the content they want to a device that is light, small, durable* and lasts for ages on one charge could work out very well.
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I think a barrier there is so many people have already ditched print subscriptions for free online versions of newspapers. And the problem with ereaders now is you either pay for delivery of versions sometimes missing articles, pictures, graphs etc. Or you have to be tech inclined enough to use Calibre or something to pull from RSS feeds etc. (and still probably not have ideal formatting vs. the web versions--I've not tried yet).
But I think a few years down the road when we have color e-ink readers with bigger screens that can display magazines etc. close to the print/web version it will be a big draw.
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I also find that the major conversion factor among the people I know who've bought them (often after seeing or hearing about mine) is the travel angle. Lots of people travel for work regularly; odds are pretty good that anyone who flies for work once a month is earning enough money that $300 or so for the portability and convenience of a reader isn't a big deal. Even if devices only get sold to frequent fliers, there's still a hell of a lot of money to be made.
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Definitely. It's sure to be big among frequently travelers like any portable gadget. It's a big part of why I got mine, I hated lugging books on flights etc. Not the main reason (that was just not having physical books laying around that I read once and never touch) but it was a big selling point.
And you're right, there's a ton of money to be made there. Like I said, it's a niche but it can easily be (and probably will be) a VERY lucrative and profitable niche.