Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
I think that's an arbitrary distinction, though, and I'm not sure how many people in the mass market care. People don't shop by production cost, they shop by perceived value.
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But the only way you'll get people to spend the money on buying a reader is by giving them an incentive to do so -- cheap books is likely the best incentive for most people. If you gave the readers away, you could charge full price for the book. But because you have to pay for the reader as well, you need to offer a discount on the book.
To most people, the perceived value of an e-book reader is minimal. Either it has a tiny screen and short battery life (a palm, smart-phone, etc) or you have to pay a lot (Sony Reader, iLiad). A paperback book, OTOH, needs no separate hardware and can be taken anywhere. The perceived value of a partial solution (an electronic file) is less than the perceived value of a complete solution (a physical paper book).
You have to make up for that somehow. The benefits of the e-book are there for certain types of books (such as for computer references, where linking relevant information together non-linearly is a benefit), but for most books where you simply want to read through in order, there's little "benefit" to a reader. So you have to provide the benefit through lower prices and instant gratification.
I think that the college market will become significantly more interested when e-book readers allow users to do everything they can do in a paper copy (see color diagrams, highlight the book, bring it to class) while weighing a small fraction of what textbooks tend to weigh today. Right now, e-book readers aren't to the point where the on-line experience matches the paper experience unless you're reading on a computer (the page size isn't big enough, and dedicated readers don't display color diagrams), and if you need a computer, you could equally well schlep around the full text.
But I think that this is likely to be a great marketing ploy in the future, both at the college level, and down into the junior high and high school markets. At the local high school, they've gotten rid of student lockers (drug fears), so students must carry all of their textbooks with them all day. Of course, they must ALSO bring their notebooks, pens, pencils, lunches, calculators, etc., so the average backpack weights in at a hefty 20-30 pounds. If they could drop the 15 lbs. or so of books, and bring along a 1/2 pound e-book reader, that would be a huge blessing to the students.
Phrodod