Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ebooks Scaling/Approaching/ Sitting Atop 'Peak of Inflated Expectations'

You make the call.

Link to September 21 MIT Technology Review article, "The Death of the Book has Been Greatly Exaggerated".

Excerpt:   Tech pundits recently moved up the date for the death of the book, to sometime around 2015, inspired largely by the rapid adoption of the iPad and the success of Amazon's Kindle e-reader. But in their rush to christen a new era of media consumption, have the pundits overreached?

I'm calling the peak of inflated expectations now. Get ready for the next phase of the hype cycle - the trough of disillusionment.

The signs of a hype bubble are all around us. Mostly in the form of irrational exuberance
.

Please say it with me again.

Media is not a zero-sum game.  Just because a new medium arrives doesn't mean an old media dies out.  --Paul Saffo

Related articles:
Book industry wrestlesl with print v. pixels.  (9/2/2010)
Coming soon to a screen near you:  Ads in ebooks.  (8/20/2010)
Ebooks now comprise 8/5% of book sales. (8/12/2010)
Genre paperback publishers drops print.  (8/6/2010)
Ebooks and libraries.  (5/4/2010)
Ebooks eliminate a free form of adversiting:  the book jacket.  (3/31/2010)
Ebooks: another round of false promises?  (3/19/2010)
The skinny on ebooks.  (3/8/2010)
Hardcover vs. ebook:  Breaking down the costs.  (3/1/2010)

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