Legal Research

eBooks

Chris Andrews at Gutenberg.com wrote this posting this week (The full posting is behind the link)

20 Reasons Why 2009 Will Be The Year of the Ebook

2009 is the ?Year of the Ebook.? Here, in no particular order, is why:

1. NEW EBOOK READERS WILL MAKE LAPTOPS AND IPHONES LOOK OLD
2. CRITICAL MASS HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, NOW ITS ABOUT GROWTH (see the Overdrive link below)
3. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE DIGITAL INK FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THEY WILL LOVE IT
4. IF THERE?S ONE THING EVERYONE WANTS NOW, IT?S COMFORT
5. WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT IT? ? NOW THAT?S PRACTICAL
6. DO YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD 1 MOVIE OR 1,000 EBOOKS?
7. THE MONEY PEOPLE: COST OF ENTRY IS STILL LOW, POTENTIAL HIGH
8. A MILLION EBOOKS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: IT?S THE ?OTHER INTERNET?
9. THE BOOK IS JUST A FORMAT, NO DIFFERENT THAN A CD, VHS, OR DVD
10. ONE WORD: POWER
11. AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS, AND DISTRIBUTORS BENEFIT FINANCIALLY
12. PLAYING AROUND WITH BOOKS IS OK, READING THEM IS BETTER
13. A TRULY GREEN TECHNOLOGY ? WITHOUT EVEN TRYING
14. WITH A CHALLENGING ECONOMY, COMPANIES WILL LOOK TO ENTER EBOOK BUSINESS
15. TRY IT ONCE, YOU?RE HOOKED FOR GOOD
16. THE IPHONE, NINTENDO DS WILL INSTANTLY EXPOSE AND PROMOTE EBOOKS
17. RIGHTS FIGHTS: IT?S ALL-GOOD WITH EBOOKS
18. THE HUGE NUMBER OF FREE EBOOKS AVAILABLE
19. A NEW GENERATION OF INDEPENDENT AUTHORS WILL NOW COME FORWARD
20. IT?S THE CONTENT, STUPID

Well there's something to debate. I'll certainly know better soon. Wifeypoo got me the latest (and now sold-out like a Kindle) Sony Reader for Christmas. I'm just seting it up now. Now I have my own to use and load instead of just friend's and trial versions.

Oh, and this little nugget came through to me today too:

Overdrive alone announced that 237 million website ebook pages viewed by library patrons for download media (76 percent growth over 2007); 4.2 billion minutes of audiobooks; patron sessions exceeded 30 million (63 percent growth over 2007); number of new users increased by 45 percent over 2007 and this included iPod, Mac and iPhone compatible ebooks. Their press release also covered the top sellers/downloads (Surprise! Twilight is at #1). And that's just at Overdrive's 8500 global clients. It's all small when compared to print but there was a time when horses outnumbered cars. Besides, nostalgia aside, reading is reading.

I'll play with more my Sony Reader and let you know what I think.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).