Picture this: You live in lonely island and you decide you want to read Wilbur Smith's last best seller. You have two choices: Get your boat and get to the nearest bookstore 1000 miles away fearing the possibility of being shark's food or turn on your computer and download it in 0,0001 seconds. No need for further comments.
So we have at least one obvious market which will prefer the e-reader. But what about the person that lives one block away from Barnes & Noble? If that person is looking for a "rare" book, then the logic for the lonely island is valid again, because the book might not be available, but suppose that person wants to read a best-selling book. Which one would he or she choose? The electronic book or the physical one?
I am sure my grandmother would not doubt to choose the physical one. Please grandmothers do not get me wrong, I am not saying that you are not tech geeks. I am saying mine is not. And lots of people would share that same choice, the physical over the electronic.
This reaction to innovations is common, tradition is hard rooted and it doesn't let some people to grasp the magnitude of the advantages. Because availability is not the only benefit. E-readers let you have your entire library in your pocket, what's more, you don't even have to walk two blocks to get it, you just have to turn on your computer. And if you tell me you prefer to hold a book or that screen light damages your eyes you are raving, and I am sorry for you.
All said, I don't like to be authoritative, so assume that phyisical books attributes outbeat electronic books ones, there is still the matter of the cost. It is much cheaper to get a file into your computer than getting the book into your hand, and that is obvious. And people choose lowest prices, and with lesser costs, prices can be cut down. So this is it for physical books. 1 minute of silence please.
So let's evaluate the e-readers on the market. We have Amazon's Kindle, and.. Ehm, that's it! Oh, Sony launched an e-reader! But there are no books for it. Sad. If we look at things this way, we may think that the Kindle is going to be the ultimate reading device. However, let's take a look at the electronic devices we already know and try to think if anyone of them resembles the e-reader, even if it does it slightly. Ehm, we have the computer, but I think it is quite bigger.. We have the radio, but it lacks screen. Oh, gotcha! There is one cell phone, the iPhone, which looks just like the Kindle, but you can use it for lots of things, say making calls, browse the web, play games, and so on.
I smell another death. I know Kindle is the market king, but I prefer one device in my pocket instead of two, and so does people without kleptomaniac tendendencies, therefore there is room for only one pocket device, and my guess is it is gonna be the iPhone the one who gets that place. There is no need for making a list of the things that the iPhone does and the Kindle does not. So Apple, please do me a favour and bring the books I love to my cell!
