09. Kindle and Printed Books
09. Kindle and Printed Books
Picture designed by Nebojsa Gelevski – Bane
According to Miranda Zhu’s blog post, Kindle provides an inexpensive and convenient reading experience to the customers with the development of technology. Selling Kindle devices at the bookstore was described as “inviting hungry foxes into the henhouse” as it harms the printed-book business.
It is true that offering Kindle reduces the demands for printed books. However, there is a significant difference between e-books and printed books; the readers cannot turn the physical pages, smell or feel the e-books. This is probably the reason why 81% of the parents suggest that reading printed books is very significant. Lowering price may help increase the demand for printed books, but it does not effectively create a competitive advantage. Furthermore, this will discourage the authors to publish printed books since they may have to be paid less, otherwise the cost should be reduced by lowering the quality of the papers. Rather, it is better to emphasize on the point of difference – the physical texture that e-books do not have – in order to compete against e-books. Furthermore, e-book market is not as big as the printed book market yet, which implies that e-books have limited variety of books. In my opinion, Kindle is not as threatening as the book sellers think in the short term. Nevertheless, the book sellers must be ready for the battle for the future since the e-book market continues growing.
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References:
Pictures:
http://ebookfriendly.com/kindle-book-vs-print-book-picture/
Articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24868137
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cate-pane/why-i-dont-read-digital-books-to-my-kids_b_4179144.html
Blog:
Miranda Z. (Kindle VS. Printed Books: A Challenge To Traditional Reading Habit)
