The Sony Librie came out last year. It
is a 6 oz. paperback book in computer form. The screen is very easily
read, even in daylight, and it runs all day on a few AAA batteries.
What's wrong with Librie and why is it only sold in Japan? First, the price at $550 is much too high. The successful price point would be $200. Second, Sony has the nonsensical view that people will buy proprietary books to use on the Librie. RCA is long out of business with a marketing plan based on this same absurd idea.
Fortunately, Sony has a new CEO brought
in from the outside. That is almost a requirement for fixing a
corporation. The only thing worse in business and the only thing
that is more absurd than nepotism is promoting someone to CEO based
on seniority. Five years with a company is enough to know it
perfectly; more than five years is a sign of insider-itis.
All of this led me to examine the books that are already on the Internet. Most are HTML and a large number are PDF. Those are the correct formats for an intelligent manufacturer of ebook-readers to use.
Most people think the book publishing business is doomed. They may be right, but book reading is another thing. Most readers are over 55 years old and no books they want to read are in large format. Ebook-readers solve that problem automatically. The ebook can enlarge the print to any size.
Most importantly, there is a new generation of readers on the way: the millions of kids who read the 600-page Harry Potter books.
I can't imagine people paying more than a dollar or two for an online book, unless they work for a corporation and have to. Libraries are already the market for special market segmented books in hardcover. What I foresee is the Internet equivalent of hardcover: Internet-based libraries that buy one expensive book for circulation to its membership. Members will download ebooks from their library. I already belong to a membership library for physical books. Publishers will make less money, but university presses already know how to live solely on library sales.