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Why technology moves faster than the (e-Book) market: "

In a review of the book: 'The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Brining Innovations to Market in a Connected World' by Bhaskar Chakravorti, there are some interesting tidbits on e-Books.

What caught my attention was the reviewer's final comments on e-Books and Tablets:

'In case you are wondering if e-books have fallen by the way side - apparently not! Now technology research firms say that the dominant device will be the Tablet PC and after 2006 e-book demand will drive the sales of Tablet PCs. And there is new technology already in play, with new shepherds - Sony and Philips. Sony's digital e-book reader LIBRIé was launched in Japan in 2004. It uses digital paper technology developed by E Ink.'

Will Tablets give rise to the e-Book market? Could be. The growth of audio books though may indirectly help its textual cousin. Why? Because both can be delivered digitally so an infrastructure built for one can be used for both. The demand for e-Books can grow organically.

Another possibility is that universities will go so digital with content exchange that books will follow. Here again, an infrastructure will slowly get built up geared around lower-volume, higher dollar content, which will then spread out across the market.

A direct assault on the reading marketplace hasn't worked as analysts had once expected, partly I think because the jump was too big.

Mobile devices, such as the Tablet PC and the iPod, may be the technological cusps that inspire the next e-Book market rage. We'll see.

(Via Incremental Blogger.)

# posted by Rob Bushway @ 9:42 AM