click, buy, read
"Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read."
The book reading function is a decoy to disguise a portable shopping device. The one click is a well known Amazon purchase feature. The connected Kindle device makes this relation portable and the format is just as accessible for a baby register or power tools as it is for books. Its also worth a mention that Kindle sells print books.
"Scott Devitt, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., predicts that Amazon is on track to sell 500,000 to 750,000 more Kindles over the next four quarters (including this one). He estimates that Kindle owners will buy an additional $120 to $150 worth of books and other content for each device, bringing the total revenues over that time period to somewhere between $225 million and $355 million. Based on that, he values the Kindle as a $1 billion business for Amazon."
(more)
digital surge...to print
" The production of traditional books rose 1% in 2007, to 276,649 new titles and editions, but the output of on-demand, short run and unclassified titles soared from 21,936 in 2006 to 134,773 last year, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by R.R. Bowker. The combination of the two categories results in a 39% increase in output to 411,422."
Publishers Weekly
adventures in book conservation II
The PowerPoint
show from the latest project for preservation of historical libraries in Arequipa, has just now arrived. Also the project Wordpress
blog
ninety nine percent different
Its something of a mystery why print reading is constantly compared with the screen reading and why the destiny of the book is contested in that context. Such comparison discounts the predominating differences, their tangential futures, and the futilities and errors of their direct comparisons.
The anomaly of the ebook conveys difference rather than convergence. Note the maladroit dependence on plug-in media, pastiche of paperback covers and warnings from space at Moon Books. The ebook is a cult comic.
A more productive approach to the future of the book is study of the exclusive qualities and functions of each delivery mode via paper or screen, the potentials of their distinctive capacities to convey conceptual works and the good chance that they can be complementary devices.
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