Course
E-Books
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The Marketplace for E-BooksThe market for e-Books is certainly heating up as many new and existing content providers (and authors!) seek to offer services to end user and to selected markets within the service area (such as libraries). Right now the focus seems to be on content. That is justifiable, given the fact that most participants are from that side of the equation (publishers and authors). The Future -- What Lies Ahead for E-Books?Free archives (e.g., Project Gutenberg) will continue to thrive, meeting demand for out-of-copyright works. Service centers (such as netLibrary and its competitors) will continue to provide packaged services to libraries and larger cooperative venture. Technological developments will play a big hand in whether end users will move to special viewers and special collections. Currently the physical appearance of e-Books does not yet approach the resolution quality of the printed book. Add to that the "tethered" limitations of most technology (even wireless has a proximity or range of operation), and it is easy to see why Internet-based (or more accurately "Web-based") solutions, initially popular, will possibly fade as personalized technologies move to the forefront. New ProductsMicrosoft, for example, has introduced ClearType technology that works with the new generation of palm devices to produce a readable text. Some of the pros of technology (multiple texts, cut-n-paste, customized notes in the margins, searching potential, and on and on) will be delivered in these more portable applications, and the thirst for more and better will inspire new solutions and new options for enhanced readability and advanced maneuverability. Technology does that. Rather designers and developers of technology do that! In the end...Time will tell whether new generations of readers will adopt new technologies. As Richard Bass, VP for Microsoft's electronic books division states: "The cards have been dealt. The only difference is how fast people will play the hand." |