More on Kindle (and a little bit on Lord of the Rings)

[alanajoli]

Publishers Weekly Book Maven blogger Bethanne Patrick passed on this article about why, if Kindle fails, the e-book could be over. It's an interesting discussion: if the iPod model doesn't work for books, what would?

In other news, I finally watched the extended version of Return of the King last night, and it filled in all the blanks I expected. I've been telling friends lately that right before Return of the King came out in the theaters, I watched one disc of the extended versions per night for four nights running. It was a great movie experience, and it made my brain fill in the blanks as I was watching the third movie in the theater. But I'm really glad I've seen the third extended now, as well.

Comments

[waywardbound.livejournal.com]

"...ponders whether or not Amazon's Kindle will be the next big thing -- or not."
Make the redundancy stop!! (pet peeve)

The problem with the push for ebooks is that it's a push. There's just not a huge demand for it.

If they wanted to sell a lot of Kindles and make it a successful business, they'd use it to take on textbooks. That is the one area where people are already spending obscene amounts of money for books that are too heavy to carry with them.

If they could convince the textbook publishers to provide a $30 digital version beside the $80 hardcover edition (that most pay $60 for used), the student adoption would skyrocket. But the textbook industry is addicted to the inefficiencies of their current ecosystem, so it'd be a hard conversion to sell to them.

And even then, the Kidle wouldn't be the ideal display option until it can support full color.