Ciao L's Profile

Weiner said that textbook publishers differ over the use of the open ePub standard or a proprietary approach like that used by the Kindle. A publisher might not want to sell books only for one platform, he noted.

Weiner said it is too early to determine how much an e-textbook might save over the cost of traditional textbooks, adding that college-owned bookstores will have a say in the price of e-books. "You have to figure you can't [leave out] the bookstore, since that's a large revenue stream for a school," he added. "It's basically a question of whether you empower them to to become online bookstores, as is happening in some cases."

Globally, iSuppli estimates that about 5 million e-readers will be sold in 2009, with that figure expected to climb to between 13 million and 14 million in 2010.

Google and Sony’s format of choice, EPUB, is also important. It’s an XML-based, free, open ebook standard which can be optimized for different devices, but Kindle does not (natively) support it. So, any titles you have in EPUB format, you can transfer to another device (it’s a bit more complicated than that, since EPUB also supports DRM,

1) DRM controls and platform dependence

2) Format confusion and incompatibility

3) Confusion about what reading devices are out there and how to compare them

4) Dependency on using a computer to order or load books

5) Format and feature support on the devices is unclear and confusing

6) The devices are as hard to use as a VCR - you know - the ones that often had blinking clocks that the user never figured out how to set.

E-book sales in the United States for the first half of 2009 were 149% higher than in the same period of 2009