Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Can someone explain to me how a group that reads a lot, but apparently does not spend a lot of money on books and are not tech-savvy, is:
a) likely to drop $200 - 300 on an e-book reader
b) going to prefer using intermediary software, rather than getting delivery right from the point of purchase and/or buying the books right on the device
c) likely to be a big source of revenue for books
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That group is
students. And the first ebook reader that figures out how to allow annotation & other markups, and easy *effective* bookmarking, will own the academic market.
There's another market in business, that's also being overlooked, but that's a harder market to break into--students are generally willing to learn to use new software; businesses often aren't.
The first 8.5" or larger ebook reader (for relatively easy letter/A4 PDF viewing) that can connect to local wireless & have books uploaded automatically will make major sales in businesses. Companies will buy them for training purposes and seminars, and keep a stack of them as loaner devices.
The first full-letter/A4-size PDF viewer with a hard-to-break screen and memory card ability, and an interface that can be taught in less than 30 seconds, will explode its way into courtrooms.
The problem with all those markets? They don't tie well to ebook stores. The company that figures out what features will get them into every Fortune 500 office will sell thousands of devices overnight... but they won't get any residual sales from books; the companies will be putting their own documents on the readers.
No ebook readers are currently targeted at users who want to put their own docs on them. Some are marketed for "our preferred ebook store + others," with an understanding that they can be used for user docs, but none are optimized for end-user document reading.