Are (Printed) Books Passe?
The New York Times published an article this past Thursday (page C1) about the emergence of electronic books. While electronic books have been touted for the last decade or so, this article wonders if they might actually gain prominence this time around, as Amazon.com and Google are two key players. Amazon plans to unveil Kindle in October, "an electronic book reader...[that] will be priced at $400-$500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon's site." Goggle will charge users for access to some digital books, sharing the profits with publishers. The currently available Sony Reader, which costs about $300, can hold up to 80 books and the "battery...lasts for 7,500 page turns." However, Amazon's e-book format is proprietary, and will not work on non-Kindle readers, such as Sony's.
Do you or have you ever used an electronic book reader? Do you see advantages or disadvantages to them? Do you think most people would be willing to move to reading books on a device such as one of these readers?
Cited article:
Stone, B. (2007, September 6). Are books passe?: Web giants envision the next chapter. The New York Times, pp. C1, C9.