Amazon reported that it sold more E-books than hardcovers in the last three months.
What might be the consequences if paper based books suffer the fate of the "old" newspapers?
Some thoughts:
- Space freed up in the house because there is no "physical" library
- Brick and Mortar libraries might become endangered. The combination of E-books and Streaming video/ digitally stored video could reduce the costs of running libraries.
- The optics business- opticians, ophthalmologists, lens makers, etc. will benefit from the increased time spent looking at the screens.
- Traditional Backpacks will be toast.
- Professors will also have more space in the office, but need to set up a new background for the times they are going to be recorded.
- Used book business might be deleted.
The fact that e-books now outsell hardcover books is “astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months,” Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, said in a statement.
In the quarter, Amazon said it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition. That number includes the last four weeks, when sales increased to 180 electronic books for every 100 hardcover copies."
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2 comments:
On the more positive side, students may study more if books (especially textbooks) are digitized.
How many high school (and sadly, university) students failed to study for an exam because they forgot to bring a book with them? This would be a thing of the past.
How many research papers were written hastily without quality information as a result of backpack size (books didn't fit) or library "max checkout" restrictions?
From an environmental perspective:
If libraries indeed started to become obsolete, how much electricity/natural gas/etc. would be saved by universities and municipalities?
Would it be offset by the electricity required to charge the e-readers, or would we see a reduction in use?
Surely a solar cell powered e-reader will eventually be released.
Will e-books be a way to remove someone from the power grid for a period of time?
Excellent points. One point to note: I did not qualify any consequences as positive or negative.
One key benefit, similar to that derived from digital music, is that books from authors worldwide can be accessed more easily. For a reader the choices grow significantly.
Another consequence is that sales of electronics (e-book readers, storage, etc.) will increase- this has an impact on resource consumption.
WOuld e-books increase or decrease the amount of time students spend reading textbooks? Would student / professional plagiarism increase, DRM protection notwithstanding?
There are many interesting questions.
Regarding the environmental /sustainability perspective- there are several trade-offs involved. The 12-book series by the Sustainability Project, http://www.hauspublishing.com/books/13
provides insight into various resources. The authors also construct sound analytical ways for evaluating these choices.
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