According to Grandinetti, publishers are asking the wrong questions. “The real competition here is not, in our view, between the hardcover book and the e-book,” he says. “TV, movies, Web browsing, video games are all competing for people’s valuable time. And if the book doesn’t compete we think that over time the industry will suffer. Look at the price points of digital goods in other media. I read a newspaper this morning online, and it didn’t cost me anything. Look at the price of rental movies. Look at the price of music. In a lot of respects, teaching a customer to pay ten dollars for a digital book is a great accomplishment.”I have shelves and shelves and shelves of books that I've read or want to read, and I don't think anything will ever replace the experience of having a tangible book in my hand. But I'm also dying for an iPad, and will most certainly buy e-books. Surely there's a happy medium - does one have to be mutually exclusive of the other?
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1 comment:
My Kindle travels everywhere with me. As such, all my books travel everywhere with me as well. To work. To bed. To The Bahamas. If I become bored a few pages in? If my mood changes a few pages in? If I overhear a conversation extolling a different book a few pages in? Sixty seconds later, I can be reading a brand new book...even if I'm at the airport...on a layover (which has happened).
That is by no means replacing the experience of a tangible book. But, it's certainly creating a new one. And if I'm all that interested in decorating my office with a particular book I've read on the kindle, I can go and buy it then.
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