Here, from eContent. The big stat: “Eight firms, one-third of the original 24 [mentioned in articles six years ago], seem to be active.” Just eight? Author is Walt Crawford, a library systems analyst who says he’s open-minded, but who is mostly hostile to e-books.
Guess what, Walt? In this case I agree. The industry does have a high mortality rate. I’ll await your forthcoming article on the reasons.
At the top of my list: Draconian DRM and the Tower of eBabel. If you knock the Sony Reader for repeating the Gemstar approach–the Reader can read DRMed books only in the Sony format, even though most big publishers insist on “protection”–you’ll be right on track. Give ’em hell, Walt. Nothing like hardware tied to a specific format, eh?
For the sake of e-bookdom, I hope the Reader isn’t a well-publicized flop; but its backward approach certainly won’t win over the likes of Walt Crawford. He says it’s “much-hyped,” and I totally understand.
