Slashdot Mirror
E-Books Are Only 6% of Printed Book Sales
An anonymous reader writes "MIT's technology blog argues that e-book sales represent 'only six pecent of the total market for new books.' It cites a business analysis which calculates that by mid-July, Amazon had sold 15.6 million hardcover books versus 22 million e-books, but with sales of about 48 million more paperback books. Amazon recently announced they sell 180 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, but when paperbacks are counted, e-books represent just 29.3% of all Amazon's book sales. And while Amazon holds about 19% of the book market, they currently represent 90% of all e-book sales — suggesting that e-books represent a tiny fraction of all print books sold. 'Many tech pundit wants books to die,' argues MIT's Christopher Mims, citing the head of Microsoft's ClearType team, who says 'I'd be glad to ditch thousands of paper- and hard-backed books from my bookshelves. I'd rather have them all on an iPad.' But while Nicholas Negroponte predicts the death of the book within five years, Mims argues that 'it's just as likely that as the ranks of the early adopters get saturated, adoption of e-books will slow.'"
There's no justification for novel fodder ebook prices as they stand. Put them down to $1 each and they'll take off like mp3 players.
shouldnt ebooks be 0% ?
We could save billions of dollars every year on text books which are written by a handful of people, produced by 3 major publishers and printed overseas.
The cost for New School Books is a serious expense Public Domain Book can cut that cost and they are already available from Government Repository Libraries.
The Federal Government has spent millions of dollars developing all types of educational books. The State Department has books that teach foreign languages, there are books on basic and advanced math, science and almost every subject available through the Department of Education.
There is no need to redesign books on math every year the only benefit is to publishers.
With the availability of tablets, laptops and home computers or even computer labs at colleges the education of students in most core studies does not need high costing books.
Teachers should review what is available then offer changes and additions as part of their job.
Unfortunately many teachers are incompetent and can only teach out of a book. They do not know their subject or their students.
And our educational system is corrupt.