E-Books: An Idea Whose Time Hasn't Come
"So far, demand for reading the texts of books on computer screens has been tepid at best, and last week the International eBook Award Foundation discontinued the awards and suspended its activities. "It has become increasingly difficult to raise the necessary funding," Alberto Vitale, the foundation's chairman, said in a statement. That is, Microsoft stopped paying.
The awards are not the only casualty in the electronic book world. Hand-held reading devices made by Thomson Multimedia with software from Gemstar—TV Guide International Inc. have disappeared from stores. Thomson does not plan to make any more because of low sales. "Are they dead? No," said Lauren Snyder, a Gemstar spokeswoman. She said some company might make new versions with Gemstar.
Mr. Brass has not declared defeat either. On Friday, Microsoft announced that it was creating the International eBook Association. Mr. Brass said the association would also give awards, albeit smaller ones, but would focus on regulatory and technological issues." [NY Times: Technology]
I would argue that the time has come for audio ebooks and even ebooks on PDAs, but dedicated devices should have been roundly trounced and were. Just like users are not flocking to Pressplay and other online services that don't offer what they want, Gemstar, its predecessor, and its rivals just don't understand the power of standards and ease-of-delivery. Consumers aren't going to invest their time and money in a device that can only read one specific type of content with few choices available in that format.
When Gemstar decided to stop letting their customers (the few folks that did actually plunk down money for their devices) download web pages and documents onto their devices, I knew the game was over. It was a clear illustration of their lack of vision and mis-reading of the market, and it failed miserably.
The ebook content industry is choking itself because of a lack of standards and available titles, which is exactly what we're seeing with digital music online from the record labels. Publishers should wake up to the fact that they are killing off their most potentially lucrative digital markets for fear of success.
[
The Shifted Librarian]
