Digital devices and the race to catch up!

In the week which has seen the much-hyped launch of Apple’s iPad, there has, of late been much excitement about what all this activity (from Amazon with its Kindle and from Sony’s Reader) means for the future of publishing and e-books.

Already there are a lot of free e-books available (from new authors as well as out-of-copyright works) and pricing is going to be an issue.

However, some have the vision that Apple’s iBooks ‘store’ will do for books what iTunes has done for music. Only one article (that I have seen) from the ever-thoughtful Sathnam Sanghera in The Times (26th January 2010) has pointed out that this is not necessarily a model worth rushing to follow, when he concluded, “herein lies the paradox of the digital age: music and book fans will have more choice than ever, but as a result of paying nothing or virtually nothing for what they consume, they’ll eventually have very little to choose from.”

In truth, consumers see digital access as being cheaper for them (AND they then spend less than before on what they consume). This is not going to make it any easier for publishers to make money in an already difficult market. The real truth is that much of the drive for digital devices comes from the technology companies – publishers would rather sell books, but they now race to keep up. They try to embrace the future but will probably strangle themselves in the process.

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