Here is another story on e-books from Access Magazine. It states that e-books will become an additional form of reading, and will not replace the printed word…Gutenberg would be proud, or would he?
\”First, let\’s trash the idea that e-books represent the final chapter in the history of the printed word. E-books will not replace the warm, tactile paper tomes we like to curl up with in bed or on the beach — at least not anytime soon.\”
Here is another story on e-books from Access Magazine. It states that e-books will become an additional form of reading, and will not replace the printed word…Gutenberg would be proud, or would he?
\”First, let\’s trash the idea that e-books represent the final chapter in the history of the printed word. E-books will not replace the warm, tactile paper tomes we like to curl up with in bed or on the beach — at least not anytime soon.\”
\”E-books — digital texts that are available for reading on a variety of electronic devices — are just one more way to distribute and enjoy the written word. They offer several advantages over ink-on-paper books, and future versions could be the greatest thing to happen to reading since Harry Potter. But right now, the state of e-books is clouded by questions about formats, reading devices and copyrights.\”
\”It\’s a muddle, but it\’s clear that e-books aren\’t going to disappear. Big publishers are jumping into the fray, and scrappy independent publishers, who were into e-books long before the big publishing houses, are defending their turf.
\”Every company is going to be putting out e-books,\” says Connie Foster, president of ebooksonthe.net, an electronic publisher and retailer. \”The independent publishers got this industry up and running, but the big publishers are jumping in because you can\’t ignore it.\”
Who\’s reading?\”
\”Fewer than 50,000 electronic reading devices have been sold in the United States, according to Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. (Jupiter predicts that this number will grow to just 1.9 million by 2005.) But that number does not include all of the Palm OS or Pocket PC devices out there, which can also display e-books. E-book sales figures are also hard to pin down. Retailers such as barnesandnoble.com won\’t comment on their numbers.\”
\”Stephen King\’s novella \”Riding the Bullet\” was downloaded more than 500,000 times in its first 48 hours online last year, proof that readers know of the medium. But those numbers tell us more about King fans than readers in general.\”
\”David Seaman, director of the University of Virginia\’s Electronic Text Center, is in a good position to gauge the potential e-book audience: Last August, the ETC converted 1,200 of its 55,000 texts into Microsoft Reader format and made them available through its site.\”
\”We converted [the texts] as an experiment: Does anybody care?\” Seaman says. \”To our surprise, a lot of people did.\” More than 1 million e-books were downloaded from the ETC site between Aug. 8 and Nov. 14, 2000, Seaman says. Among the top 50 downloads were \”Alice in Wonderland\” and \”Aesop\’s Fables.\”
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