Saturday, November 21, 2009

Computerworld's Matt Hamblen on the Future of E-Readers

Link to November 19 article at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle), "Eight reasons e-readers could fail".

Hamblen discusses the following 8 concerns:
1. Price of devices
2. Price of e-books
3. Smartphones
4. Apple's rumored tablet computer
5. Popular authors aren't sure about e-books
6. Digital rights
7. Open publishing standards, or not?
8. Librarians and small bookstores. (Excerpt: While some groups, including the New York Public Library and the Texas Book Festival, have semi-endorsed e-readers as a way to encourage reading and lessen illiteracy, it appears that many librarians are mostly remaining quiet about the technology and perceive it as a possible threat to what they offer.)

Though there might be a kernal of truth in the above statement, I suspect that Hamblen might not be fully aware of the how library consortia already provide a gateway to e-books.


Wisconsin Public Library Consortium

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