I’ve been waiting a few years to watch the e-reader war play out before buying one. There’s been no war, more like a small skirmish. Enter iPad, and now maybe we’ll see some action. But I’m no Apple junkie, so I think I’ll still watch and wait for the prices to go down.
I understand there’s a cost in making the devices, and the companies are getting in on the willingness of techies and extremely avid readers to pay top dollar for new devices, but to get the mainstream to buy I think the price will have to decrease dramatically or the readers will have to be all-in-one devices.
As for the former, it’s hard for me to justify paying $200-300 or more for a device and then pay for the books on top of that when I can just buy a physical book. I understand the benefits of an e-reader, but I do not normally carry around or read several books at once. The device would be obsolete before the average cost per e-book, once I figured in the original cost of the device, could be justified. Even if I factor in the news subscriptions, it still wouldn’t make sense for me.
As for the latter, I’m not sure an all-in-one device would work if it included a book reader. The screen needs to be much larger than a phone screen to encourage reading for any length of time — and I’m now imagining the large, cumbersome mobile phones of the 1980s (ah, the 80s) and how hip those things were.
Still, I am curious. Maybe I’d become a bigger reader…or just spend more money on books…if I had a device. Maybe publishers should take note.
Does the average book-buyer buy enough to justify the current cost of any of the e-readers out there? Do you?
Christopher W. Parks said,
March 18, 2010 @ 6:11 am
I have not invested in one of these yet. Not sure what the cost is per book to download, but I believe over time I read enough to get a payback. A good friend of mine has a kindle. Seems to be great for the books… but based on what I’ve seen of the iPad it look likes so much more – and costs twice as much. It has color where the kindle doesn’t. I read, surf, and do the social networking thing, so the iPad would be more of what I’m looking for. I’m just not going to pay nearly $500 at this point. For the time being… I will keep on using my laptop and buy the physical books.
Great start to your blogging career! Keep’em coming. – CP
mandeemays said,
March 18, 2010 @ 8:50 pm
Hey Chris,
Thanks for reading and commenting!
E-books generally cost between $10 and $20. Amazon boasts $9.99 on most books, but some are more or less. Also, publishers want to go up a little on the prices ($2-5 more; not a big price jump in my opinion). Apple wants to negotiate deals with publishers that do not allow them to sell their e-books at any other retailer for less than they sell on iBooks. So, the pricing model is still under construction.
I was looking around my living room and realized how many non-fiction books I’m currently reading and browsing. Right now, they are all baby-related. It would be nice to have them electronically so that I could search the text all at once….like a search for “sleep”!
–Mandee