There are millions of books on amazon.com, and on average each will sell around 500 copies a year. The average American is reading just one book a year, and that number is falling. The problem (to quote Tim O’Reilly) isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. Authors are lucky to be in a business where electronic copies aren’t … Continue reading A Quick Note on the Fabled “iPod Moment”
Tag: Kindle
Playing with the Kindle, Playing with the Future
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future. --Sidney J. Harris It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of eBooks or eReaders, but there's no question they're growing in popularity... at least amongst technology companies. While the hype … Continue reading Playing with the Kindle, Playing with the Future
eBooks: The False Dilemma
People will continue to read printed books for a long time, just as some people still watch movies on VHS. But the printed book will be "dead" in a few short years in the sense that the bulk of the adoption curve, the pragmatic majority, will have moved on. --Arvind Narayanan, "The death of the … Continue reading eBooks: The False Dilemma
The Bookstore of the Future is… a Tree Museum?
"I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." --Anna Quindlen GalleyCat had a provocative post last week, "Is This the Bookstore of Tomorrow?", spotlighting novelist Moriah Jovan's anti-septic floorplan anchored by two Espresso machines (POD, not coffee) surrounded by workstations for … Continue reading The Bookstore of the Future is… a Tree Museum?
Can the $99 iPhone save newspapers?
I am not a card-carrying member of the Steve Jobs Cult by any means, but the smug "Mac vs. PC" commercials aside, when it comes to innovation and marketing savvy, I bow before Apple's altar. Yesterday's announcement of the "new" iPhone 3G S wasn't greeted very warmly by some of its hardcore fan base ("Apple … Continue reading Can the $99 iPhone save newspapers?