MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Will 2009 be the Year of the E-book?

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-19-2009, 04:14 PM

I think a lot will happen in 2009, but for a real "breakthrough," we need two things: A drastic price cut in readers and most e-books; and more compelling hardware/features that convince more of the public to buy readers or use smartphones, PDAs, etc for reading. The former could happen in 2009, but the latter will take longer, on the order of a few more years, to happen. Even if some manufacturer is working on "the" device right now, I wouldn't expect it to hit the streets until 2010 at the earliest, and then marketing has to get the word out.

Bottom line, I think 2009 is too early to be the e-books' "year," unless e-book prices drop so significantly that the world starts using whatever they already have to read e-books, letting the dedicated devices "catch up" to the market.

03-19-2009, 04:14 PM	#8
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I think a lot will happen in 2009, but for a real "breakthrough," we need two things: A drastic price cut in readers and most e-books; and more compelling hardware/features that convince more of the public to buy readers or use smartphones, PDAs, etc for reading. The former could happen in 2009, but the latter will take longer, on the order of a few more years, to happen. Even if some manufacturer is working on "the" device right now, I wouldn't expect it to hit the streets until 2010 at the earliest, and then marketing has to get the word out. Bottom line, I think 2009 is too early to be the e-books' "year," unless e-book prices drop so significantly that the world starts using whatever they already have to read e-books, letting the dedicated devices "catch up" to the market.