Comments on: Will WiFi mean LESS book-reading on planes? http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/14/will-wifi-mean-less-book-reading-on-planes/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:25:26 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: FRupp http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/14/will-wifi-mean-less-book-reading-on-planes/comment-page-1/#comment-1079840 FRupp Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:07:33 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/14/will-wifi-mean-less-book-reading-on-planes/#comment-1079840 I think Clark is right. Most of the people reading books on planes are people that enjoy the medium outside of travel. I expect it to effect Southwest travelers significantly when you consider they don't even offer in-flight movies to pass the time. Its BYOE (entertainment) with books, magazines, iPod/Phone vids/tunes the most common choices. IMO it is the magazine industry that will suffer the most with the addition of airplane WiFi. The only time I even purchase a magazine now is on flights longer than 3 hours. Given free WiFi and a netbook, with reasonable battery life, I wouldn't go into airport news stores for anything other than gum. I think Clark is right. Most of the people reading books on planes are people that enjoy the medium outside of travel. I expect it to effect Southwest travelers significantly when you consider they don’t even offer in-flight movies to pass the time. Its BYOE (entertainment) with books, magazines, iPod/Phone vids/tunes the most common choices.

IMO it is the magazine industry that will suffer the most with the addition of airplane WiFi. The only time I even purchase a magazine now is on flights longer than 3 hours. Given free WiFi and a netbook, with reasonable battery life, I wouldn’t go into airport news stores for anything other than gum.

]]> By: Clark Tracy http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/14/will-wifi-mean-less-book-reading-on-planes/comment-page-1/#comment-1012574 Clark Tracy Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:17:55 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/02/14/will-wifi-mean-less-book-reading-on-planes/#comment-1012574 What this posting seems to point to is that given a choice people will immediately switch from books to almost anything else. The people who are going to forgo reading a book on a plane for WiFi are not the people who are going to be reading a book on a plane anyway, they're going to be the people who either have their laptops out as soon as the flight attendant says that it's "safe" to turn on electronics, or the people who aren't doing anything anyway. I don't really know why we're worried about in-flight reading anyway, there isn't that much of it going on. What this posting seems to point to is that given a choice people will immediately switch from books to almost anything else. The people who are going to forgo reading a book on a plane for WiFi are not the people who are going to be reading a book on a plane anyway, they’re going to be the people who either have their laptops out as soon as the flight attendant says that it’s “safe” to turn on electronics, or the people who aren’t doing anything anyway. I don’t really know why we’re worried about in-flight reading anyway, there isn’t that much of it going on.

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