Quote:
Originally Posted by rlauzon
Just because something costs more doesn't mean that the consumer pays more.
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Absolutely agree. Actually I do believe that the only way the industry can survive in the future is by providing the final consumer with free content.
The only reasons why people still prefer p-books to e-books today are:
--tradition/habits ("I love the smell of the paper");
--reference ("I love having them in my library so I can come back to them later")
--mistrust ("I'm not sure if I can read today's files in my computer 20 years from now")
--portability ("p-books are portable, e-books have to be read in my PC")
--e-reading devices high price ("Even if e.book reading devices were cheap and I could find them in every shop").
This all together makes e-books market limited to:
--geeks
--fans
--average income/rich people
--lazy people who prefer buying online than going to a bookstore
--pirats
E-book sellers use all of this in their favour. The market is so faithful that they can tag products with the prices they want. Also, p-publishers always have a physical product to sell where they can get money from. E-publishers however only have digital, easy to pirate products. So they also raise prices in order to compensate this because they know a simple hacker can overlap all DRMs.
However I believe that all of this is about to change when ebook reading devices get actually produced in mass for lower prices. Only _really_ extravagant or traditional people will still buy p-books (p-books are for the year 2025 as typewriter machines are for the 2000's).
Now, if everyone as a ebook reading device why will they buy an ebook if they can get them for free in P2P networks?
--Because they are loyal citizens, defenders of the Law and copyright?
--Because they trust more in e-books sold by e-publishers (better layouts, made by professionals, etc?)
I DON'T THINK SO...
Everyone is going to want everything for free. And authors/publishers have to find a new paradigm. Maybe supporting e-books with advertisement, maybe giving them away and allowing people to make donations (some authors already do this)... What I'm sure is that the market will have to change and only the more creative publishers/authors in giving away their products for free will survive.