The e-book market is global, as this machine from China illustrates. If not E-Book Central already, China soon will be.
Publishers, stop those $20 e-book gouges! And look outside the United States, not just within. Think volume and new business models and a standard format. Embrace the library world and the campus. Rejoice in the economies of the e-book technology.
And now Nick Hampsire, editor of DigitalPublishingNew.net, has come forth with astute observations that in effect reinforce the above. I’ll edit them slightly for clarity:
The Chinese government is committed to giving e-book access to every one of China’s 165 million students. That is more people than the entire populations of Germany, France and Britain put together. I have personally seen evidence of the Chinese government’s commitment to this goal.
The usual idea of a basic e-publication reader–the feature added, price plus, marketing philosophies of the U.S.–is not going to apply to places such as China
Low production price and functionality are the order of the day.
China has the capacity and the political will to do this. And the rest of the world, the US included, will have to follow. India, Korea, and Malasia are already following China, and even countries like Australia are exploring the idea.
Um, TeleRead anyone?
Meanwhile the e-book business should avoid the smugness that so often has characterized it in the past. This is still one sick industry, given all the self-created obstacles such as DRM and the Tower of eBabel. We’re talking long-term potential more than here-and-now.
