eBook Week has ended but that does not mean the reading has ended.
In fact Erika Smith of the IndyStar.com has called 2009 the “Year of the eBook.” With retailers gearing up for a paper/ebook fight the winners are yet to be determined. Amazon and Sony have been leading the pack with their ebook readers that have come out early and with a fierce support and book download service. However, Barnes and Noble hopes to lap them with the ebook store they are launching later this year.
By the year 2012 Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates the sales of ebooks to be around $12 Billion, yeah billion.
So whats the significance of ebook week and the sales of ebooks? It shows that the market is ready for ebooks. The market is ready becuase the people are ready. The cycle of want and need, desire and purchase or simply, supply and demand. With the market and people ready that means that technology and uses will improve. Better school use, better teaching use, more availability in the classroom and most important more opportunity for our children to read and learn in a 3 dimensional world.
So download an ebook and get reading!
April 10th, 2009 at 7:03 am
FANTASTIC!
December 13th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of reviews up about how great the Kindle is for reading books, so I wanted to write a quick review concentrating on how well it handles some other important functions.
Because I am very nearsighted and because I commute to work on jam-packed Chicago trains, the Kindle has enabled me to keep up with the news in a way I was unable to before. I can now wake up with three newspapers (The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune) waiting for me on my nightstand. I roll over and spend a half hour reading before I even have to think about getting out of bed. If I wanted to read the papers on my PC or the traditional way, I would get up and put on my contact lenses first, but this way I just hold the Kindle close to my face (or my face close to the Kindle) and read comfortably. If I want to continue reading on the train, I can do it without having to wrestle with giant newspapers - one hand on the guardrail and one on the Kindle and it’s a smooth and informative ride to work. Heaven in chaos.
I also subscribe to a few magazines through the Kindle. The price is right, the delivery is seamless, and the one-handed navigation is tops. Unfortunately, I eat fast food for lunch a lot, but no matter how greasy the burger or loosely packed the taco, my Kindle stays clean and I can sit at a counter without disturbing the person next to me with a magazine next to my tray or a newspaper being folded and unfolded over a large area.
With the Internet access, built-in dictionary that pops up a definition when you put the cursor on a word, and easy search of Google and Wikipedia, I have also come to value features I barely considered when I placed my order. If you turn off images in the Internet browser, Web pages load at a decent rate and it is very easy to go back to the book page you were on if you just wanted to pop on the Web to look up something mentioned in the text. You can also use the Kindle as an extra screen if you need to have a document or Web page handy while you are doing something else on your monitor.
I know someone made this comparison before, but the Kindle is truly the closest thing to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy we have. The screen displays a lot more information with a lot less eyestrain than a telephone or PDA and the world’s information can always be at your side.
Happy travels.