Do people really want e-books?
By Paul Biba
I was in New York City today and took a shot of this iPhone sign with my iPhone. Stores like this are cropping up all over the city. It just testifies to the incredible demand for the iPhone. If you can’t read the sign it says, “Apple iPhones Unlocked In Stock.”
Such sights made me think about e-books and the relative lack of demand for them. Is it DRM, is it eBabel, is it expensive readers—just what is keeping the demand down? Clearly, as the iPhone shows, if consumers want something, they will demand it and get it. I see nothing like this demand for e-books. Is is just us techies who want them? Does the public even know about them? Do they really want them? I don’t have any answers, but I found the iPhone signs pretty depressing in that regard.
Just how do we get this thing rolling? If the iPhone shows anything it seems to me that this whole thing won’t take off until some really savvy marketing wiz takes it on - Sony and Amazon don’t seem to have cut the mustard in this regard. Why not? Or is it that e-books are only a niche product?
Moderator: See Making Social DRM work for e-books—with maximum privacy protection, as well as Library books you can KEEP forever—and other ideas to help public libraries survive the digital era. - D.R.
Popularity: 5% [?]
April 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
It isn’t ebooks alone — it’s all books. They’re not a mass medium in the same way that music and video are. And the trend has been toward marginalization.
Now that we’re seeing an astonishing growth in the number of books published (a 33% increase last year alone) and in the number of authors, I wonder whether we’ll see that trend reverse. Of course, most of those books sell less than 100 copies, but something is definitely happening out there.
Most importantly, all those new authors are promoting books, and more aware of books. I think it’s like parenthood. When you’re a new parent, suddenly you see babies everywhere. They were there before, but now they’re all you see, and all you talk about. This can start a baby boom. Maybe we’re about to see book boom.
As for the lack of excitement about ebook reading devices, I think that the tech just isn’t quite ready for primetime, but it’s getting a LOT closer. Don’t despair yet.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I think the problem is that the public is wary of paying several hundred dollars for a device that locks you into a particular DRM’d format, then breaks after 12 months (2 days after the warranty expires) and takes your library to DRM heaven (or perhaps the other place).
Not everyone in the world earns enough money to think of their expensive purchase as a “disposable” item.
If MP3 devices cost $500 and you couldn’t rip your own CD’s I wonder how popular they would have become. Probably just another rich executive toy instead of hanging off the ears of half the population. It was the “free” content, i.e. your existing CD collection, podcasts and freebies that fueled its growth. Once we all got used to the system people decided it was easier to download than wait 4 weeks for a CD on backorder.
I am holding out high hopes for something like the Asus EEE - a much better deal and will handle books, music, browsing and other small computing jobs.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I think it is merely the price of the devices currently. Once prices of readers come down, reading on devices will go up.
It’s hard to compare the iPhone to the Amazon Kindle. People chose the iPhone because it did a lot of things in a really nice wrapper, but mainly, it is a phone. They pay a premium for the look and some of the other features.
Only those who can afford it will purchase a Kindle or the cheaper Sony Reader. For those who can’t afford it, they continue to shop for dead tree books at Amazon or their local retailer.
I don’t believe John Q. Public lays awake at night worrying about DRM, I think it is the high cost of the devices.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:02 am
Paul asks:
“Is it DRM, is it eBabel, is it expensive readers—just what is keeping the demand down?”
I think it’s all of the above plus one more - the price of ebooks. The vast majority of people I’ve talked with will never pay the same price for an ebook as for the print book. Most would not even pay the same price as for the paperback version. Further, when we discuss the limitations of ebooks in regards to loaning or giving to a friend or selling them (does a “used ebook store” even make sense?) the interest in ebooks fades pretty quickly.
Most people I talk to about this love the idea of ebooks but the current mix of hardware price and capabilities, the existing DRM (I think Social DRM is a non-starter), the various formats and ebook prices just don’t have any mass appeal.
I agree with Carol - it will be interesting to see how much mass appeal the impending flood of mini-notebooks such as those from Asus will have in the marketplace.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
I don’t know that the pricing of the devices is so much an issue — after all, probably 90% of the population has Adobe Reader on their computer and knows how to use it — or they have the equivalent. Reading a book on a computer is easy. It’s not an issue.
On the other hand, not being able to share an ebook, as well as the fact that all major publishers (note, small press ebook publishers are more reasonable with pricing electronic versions) seem to think readers will pay $17.99 for a new release ebook is keeping it down.
If the major publishers would just remember that paying $17.99 for a keepsake hardcover and buying fiction just to read are two different things and price them accordingly……
H.