Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
I agree. That's why I think the best way to ease them along is with baby steps. Frankly, I think if e-books were delivered through dirt-cheap, physical USB keys and sold like pbooks, they would have higher adoption rates than they do now. That way you're only asking the mass market to accept one new thing at a time. Yeah, it's totally antithetical to what e-books are all about, and I'm not in any way suggesting it (before a couple of dozen people post that it's a stupid idea) but it would probably work.
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It is an interesting idea -- neither good nor bad, and worth playing with. This scheme, whether CDs, SD cards, USB flash or even some high-density bar code within the book itself, would permit a transitional phase for brick and mortar retailers to adapt themselves and their customers to the coming changes in content delivery. Even taking a pBook to the counter and asking them to install the eBook version on your reader would be a start. What could it cost to make a read-only micro-SD card of maybe 128MB?
In another part of this thread, the need is expressed for an end-to-end solution whereby the customer can visit a website, buy an eBook, and have it automagically appear on his reader. I think Palm devices are probably closest to having that from at least two sources because they have published their API long enough for 3rd party support to develop. Maybe it would be a good thing if Palm made a reader-sized PDA. Mobipocket runs well on Palms, and so do a lot of other reader apps. With the existing Palm user base there would be an instant market. The world needs more end-to-end solutions to broaden the market for eBooks.