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Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
Interesting article. One point that he doesn't mention is the fact that ebooks are often available somewhere to some people, but are not available everywhere on all devices. So, DRM and Geo restrictions are also a blocker to adoption - perhaps as a further cause of the availability issue mentioned.
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Format is still an issue too. I doubt ebooks will really take off until the industry settles on a standard format (ePub, most likely).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
Someone suggested to me that they felt that the avalanche would come when a device broke the £100/$100 barrier, which the PRS300, for example, is close to doing. At this price point, it becomes a popular gift, and usage would take off.
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I won't gift an ereader, regardless of price, until I can also gift ebooks. There are very few places I've found that allow ebook gifting, so that's an issue.
from the article:
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In my opinion, the right way to create a technology product is to identify a group of customers who have a major problem, and to solve that problem decisively. It's not clear that ebooks, especially as they are constituted today, do that. Paper books simply aren't broken, from the perspective of most users.
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I disagree with this. Well, maybe "most" users don't see a benefit, but the avid readers, the ones who are/were early adopters of ereader technology, certainly see benefits: better availability of some books (I've found several ebooks that I can't find in print), free public domain books, ease of carrying many books with me, storing my library on a small device. I can fit my ereader in my purse and take it with me! Try doing that with the latest 1,000-pager King novel! No more cramming 8 books into my luggage when I travel!
Even my parents, avid readers but somewhat technophobes, have ereaders because of the ease of use.