Digitizing Is the Way..

Is it a million dollar question today whether eBooks (digitized version of hard books) will become the dominant force and place the last nail on the coffin named "Demise of Brick & Mortar based companies" such as Border, Barnes & Noble and a host of publishing houses? You bet, going by the last quarter earnings from Amazon for this year are any indication and direction in which this industry is moving. Amazon reported that digitized version of their books outsold hard cover copies for the first time and research folks all agree that this is not a blimp but sure indication of things to follow in the market.

Today (September, 22, 2010) Wall Street Journal carried a title “Web Start-Up Values Soar” providing a picture of overcrowded manufacturers of tablet computers from makers such as Apple (Ipad), Dell (Streak), Samsung (Galaxy Tab), RIM, ACER, Asus (Eeepad), Lenova(LePad), Cisco(Clus) who are potentially trying to catch up this very important paradim shift in consumer habit & behavior.

Also, eReader manufacturers (SONY, Amazon, Barnes & Noble , EBS Technology, Condor Technology Associates, Kogan Technologies, Spring Designs, Kobo Books, iRex Technologies, Wolder Electronics, Onyx International, , iPapyrus, Hanvon) are also playing a big role in accelerating this movement of digital era world wide with different flavors and support level.

One can pick & choose a eReader based on its file format support capabilities  ( .epub,.pdb ,.arg ,.azw ,.djvu ,.html ,.lbr ,.lit ,.mobi ,.opf ,.pdf ,.pdg ,.tr3 ,.txt ,.xeb ,.mp3) preference features such as (Size,Weight, Screen Resolution,Shades,Operating System,Touchscreen,Wifi,Text-to-Speech,Integrated dictionary directory organization capability,Amount of memory Card,Reader user replaceable battery,Web Browser).

This change will alter the dynamic relationship between Authors, Publishers and retailers along the lines on profits in the $40 billion a year retail book industry and digital publishing globally which is around $480 billion. The direct sale to end customer will eliminates the need for shipping, warehousing, returns, inventory of stock and out-off print scenarios resulting in lower cost to a consumer.

Authors now have the ultimate freedom and opportunity to show case their work while avoiding agents and long approval process at reputed publishing houses. Rather websites like http://www.scribd.com/ would provide window for any author to publish their work and earn 80% of the sales when compared to 7 to 15 percent royalty that would otherwise be paid.

There are still many challenges that needs to be addressed before it makes hard covers/books obsolete. These newer gadgets (eReaders/Tablets) need to be cost effective and should be able to download any article from any publishing source for a price. There should be an exchange market made available to exchange one article with the others to proliferate the usage of digital articles. 

Next Trends:
Innovative digitizing mainly for Text book/Fictional ones with appropriate drill downs with 3D features on Computer tablets could be the next wave that customer can't wait to see...