High-tech businesses, including those related to e-books, may finally be on the way to a meaningful recovery. We know the Net didn’t go away, just certain dotcom companies. And now a New York Times article sums up happy tidings from the bean counters at Intel, Yahoo and Nokia. On top of that, computer book sales are looking up. That could be a good Leading Indicator.
Could e-books benefit along the way–since many investors and corporate planners rightly or wrongly lump so together so much of tech? Well, definitely. Of course a more sensible ‘tude about DRM and nonproprietary consumer standards could help. Meanwhile remember that global e-books sales are tiny–just $50 million out of the tens of billions that p-books sell–even if they are growing faster than the book business as a whole.
