Comments on: Espresso Book Machine said to be a hit at the University of Alberta—but would more focus on e-books be better? http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/10/espresso-book-machine-said-to-be-a-hit-at-the-university-of-alberta/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:01:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Jason Etheridge http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/10/espresso-book-machine-said-to-be-a-hit-at-the-university-of-alberta/#comment-794179 Jason Etheridge Sat, 10 May 2008 22:10:42 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/10/espresso-book-machine-said-to-be-a-hit-at-the-university-of-alberta/#comment-794179 POD really does seem to be the best of both worlds: access to the vast catalogue of books in electronic form, in the traditional paper-based format. Probably its killer feature from the publishers' point of view is the complete avoidance of DRM, since the purchaser gets a regular, non-copyable book. I've got a Cybook, and it's acceptable as an alternative, but when I tell people how much I paid for it, they're aghast. Unless the price for e-book readers *really* comes down significantly, it's going to remain niche. For the short- to medium-term (as in the next 10 years), I suspect that POD is going to establish a real foothold. However, at 37, I may just be hopelessly old-fashioned. :-) POD really does seem to be the best of both worlds: access to the vast catalogue of books in electronic form, in the traditional paper-based format. Probably its killer feature from the publishers’ point of view is the complete avoidance of DRM, since the purchaser gets a regular, non-copyable book.

I’ve got a Cybook, and it’s acceptable as an alternative, but when I tell people how much I paid for it, they’re aghast. Unless the price for e-book readers *really* comes down significantly, it’s going to remain niche. For the short- to medium-term (as in the next 10 years), I suspect that POD is going to establish a real foothold.

However, at 37, I may just be hopelessly old-fashioned. :-)

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