Quote:
Originally Posted by tomsem
Ebooks have not followed the digital trajectory of video and music for the simple reason that the latter have always required some device to decode the stored information. And clearly the devices have gotten more powerful and portable and inexpensive and digital media more easily produced and distributed, to the point where physical media (wax cylinders, vinyl disks, VHS, k8 track cassettes, CDs, BluRay) have become less compelling. While the transition has been disruptive, and continues to be, there's no turning back.
Print books can be consumed without any technology apart from what is between the ears. And for whatever reasons, many people like collecting and displaying them.
For more casual readers, it's convenient and immediate to simply pick up the book and read. Devices aren't required, and can even get in the way. It doesn't matter how cheap or pervasive (e.g. smartphones) the devices are. So the market for print books isn't going away any time soon.
It's also true that book publishers have been reluctant to fully embrace digital. Even with all the inefficiencies of producing and distributing and possibly pulping paper books. But it's mostly because they are serving a market, and it is more or less working out. For now.
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All of these reasons as stated. Some technology advances are superior, but print books are not obsolete since they still work well for most readers. With music, there was a cost behind a lot of the advancement, it's so easy now to stream music. When we went to the CD format, I started hated that format. Same with DVDs, at first collected them, but find them a failure with holding up and endless issues. Cutting cable cost and streaming movies and shows became an in thing, a way to save money, a way not to buy hardware. You will get the music and movie collectors who still buy physical and display, as you do with books, but the differences between viewing a VHS tape versus a DVD, then a blue-ray, versus streaming, can all be so different and heavily affect the product.