eBooks or Publishers?

Thanks rehintz for the post on ebooks and how they are not selling.   I don't know where Susan Moldow is getting her prices, but check out the Kindle Store (Canada):

Kindle edition with Audio/Video : $26.22
Kindle edition: $22.39

Hardcover: $17.49

So is it any wonder that the eBooks are not selling?  More than books … publishers need disruption.  Publishers are like Telcos, they always claim to be threatened whenever a new technology arrives ... they tell us they are going to lose money.  Invariably they end up profiting from the new technology.

Moving on … it appears that that the eBook game is getting hotter in the education/textbook segment.  Students in the U.S. and Canada pay way too much for their books and publishers would love to kill the used book market (usually they try to do this by coming up with new editions which have marginal changes).  Of course the big announcement is from Apple … new version of iBooks … free authoring tool etc. … but there are other more interesting things happening.  Nature has apparently come up with a Biology textbook - all digital, interactive … $49 for lifetime access.  I wanted to have a look but was told that I need to be a Biology Professor (any old Professor won't do!).

Indiana University is shifting to digital using Courseload … here is what the CEO has to say:

The most exciting development is Creative Commons licensed books from Flatworld Knowledge … free books online … but more importantly, instructors can customize books to their needs … delete chapters, sections  and add their own content … they call it 'MIYO' - Make it your own!

Josh Gans on Borders' death-by-internet

As Borders filed for bankruptcy - supposedly at the hands of online shopping and eBooks - economist Josh Gans had one thing to say tweet:

"Borders closing? Where will I go now to browse through books I then buy on my Kindle?" (@joshgans, 2011)

Sidenote: How long before Chicago Manual of Style has a section of referencing tweets?  Anyone seen anything along these lines yet?   - sezflom

One small step for E-Books...

Our discussion on E-books touched on many small, user concerns that were limiting uptake: backlighting that doesn't tire the eyes, that "book feel", highlighting/ note-taking capability etc.  The latest advancement is page numbers (H/T Lifehacker).  Users love improvements to a product they already own (particularly with the ease of downloading a softward update), but could the piecemeal nature of these advancements actually preclude momentum?  Compare Kindle's software updates to the Steve Job's approach of dramatically unveiling a new product that solves all the problems with the previous model and caters to those needs-you-didn't-even-know-you-had.  Jobs certainly gets more press coverage...
- sezflom

Another downside to E-Books

Gulliver, The Economist's business travel blog, presents The Kindle Conundrum: another downside to e-books...

"It is the Kindle conundrum that really drives me dilly. My Kindle poses no greater danger to the flight while switched on than does the phone that I may have forgotten to switch off. Nor does reading it put me at any greater risk of failing to heed a "brace" command than would the reading of a gripping book. Yet the book is allowed while the Kindle is banned because it is an electronic device. And little will likely be done to solve the Kindle conundrum because the people affected are disempowered when it comes to making the rules, while the rulemakers have little incentive to make them less annoying. For no good reason, it seems as though the ban will persist for years."

- sezflom

eBook Devices and Education

eBooks/eDocs and/or devices are not ready for the education market yet.  Amazon conducted Kindle DX trials at  Darden B-school (U. of Virginia), Princeton and a number of other U.S. universities.  The general conclusion was that while it is a good device for general reading, it was not ready for education because its not easy to highlight, annotate etc. or go to a particular page (since there are no true page numbers).

Meanwhile Swiss B-school IMD is giving the iPad a try and while its likely to have some of the same shortcomings as the Kindle, it appears to be a better tool for facilitating networking in the classroom and for accessing real time information.  One of the motives for going digital is to reduce paper use and associated printing/shipping costs.

Clearly the education segment is not going to drive eBook adoption … and if the 'specialist segment' is large enough and distinct enough there could be different devices for different segments … but not soon.  Cambridge, U.K. based company Plastic Logic developed a super-sleek device for the business segment called Que … one that would replace not just books but the entire briefcase ... and then changed its mind in August last year.  Now its focussing on next generation foldable plastic displays.