Amazon's announcement that it plans to launch the ‘Kindle’ (an electronic book reader) into the UK marketplace should come as no surprise to futurologists or techheads either. This announcement comes somewhat belatedly after Sony’s less than successful foray in to the digital book market (see ‘Sony Portable Reader’).
However the terrible reception experienced by Sony’s attempt should by no means discourage Amazon. Sony failed due to its unfortunate lack of content support and a misguided attempt at using a completely new file format. Its lack of internet access was also laughable as it closed off the main avenue for obtaining digital books.
However, the fact remains that there has to be a market for such a product. Amazon only has to develop the right support network and the most logical interface possible if it is to succeed.
The support challenge isn’t too big a hurdle for Amazon due to its already astounding array of titles. And developing a new file format would also be ludicrous when the wondrous PDF already holds a monopoly over electronic documents.
However, if Amazon really wants to capture the market, they should set their horizons much higher than the simple book market. While online news is good if you have internet access and a laptop, the electronic book reader provides an excellent prospect for reading news and magazines on the move. This ‘Newspaper 2.0’ could also be the future revenue source for the already dwindling returns in the modern news world. Indeed, future commuters could either download digital newspaper and magazine documents at home or at a retailer or even automatically via ‘Wi-max’ or SMS.
It is clear that many people will continue to enjoy the ownership and intellectual kudos of a good library. Indeed even the solid feel of a book will be too much for some to give up. By all means though, many are likely to convert, but not for books alone. Books could become the secondary market for these readers, with the archaic newspaper finally finding its new place. So, far from being the end of books, it could be the newspaper that is first to go as we enter a whole universe of reading.