[12605] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: ALA MidWinter - RMG's Ninth Annual Presidents' Seminar
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (zendog)
Fri Dec 4 20:19:45 1998
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 11:21:02 -0500
From: zendog <zendog@incolsa.palni.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.3.96.981202215415.7085B-100000@copper.ucs.indiana.edu>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: zendog@incolsa.palni.edu
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
People interested in Ebooks may read the user review I sent to RMG in
response to their posting.
*********
I will not attend, but I thought you might be interested in the response of
a paying customer.
I got my RocketBook a week ago. I downloaded an issue of the Wall Street
Journal and I paid $6.50 to download INTO THIN AIR. I scanned the WSJ and
am about 3/4 done with INTO THIN AIR. I am not interested in the Wall
Street Journal but I would like to see the Chronicle of Higher Education
before I would make a decision on the newspaper format. As for the book
format, I am very surprised that I like RocketBook about as much as paper.
It is a little too heavy, and there is a bit of glare on the glass but
reading is just as comfortable and portable as paper and I never realized
before what nuisance it is to fumble with pages. It is nice to be able to
zap back and forth to footnotes. I am reading this for a book club, so I
have set a few tabs and underlined some passages -- I am going to be a huge
hit at the next book club meeting. I have also used the dictionary a couple
of times -- which you can't do with a book. The Ebook was the same price as
paperback from Barnesandnobel.com but I got it in under 10 minutes from my
office (billed to my MasterCard) and I did not have to pay shipping. Now
that I have the RocketBook, it will be my first choice for most (about 90%)
of my book-length reading. I will still buy paper when high quality
graphics is important.
But where is the market? At $500 it is much too expensive. $500 makes it
an expensive toy rather than a practical device. Either the price of Ebooks
or reading devices has to come down to make it a serious replacement for
paper. The first wide-scale use I see is for college students. This would
be a HUGE improvement over paper. Put all your course texts into a
RocketBook in 20 minutes and you are set for the term. To be most useful,
however, there has to be a way to cut and paste text for assignments and
study. A second use might be for libraries to serve best sellers. Instead
of leasing dozens of copies of the current (GULP, GASP, CHOKE) Sidney
Sheldon, the library could loan loaded RocketBooks. Again, however, it is
the costs that will determine if this is a possibility. If a publisher can
put together a package, it might be worth it for some libraries to explore
this by leasing one hundred or so of these things to test the market.
So what is the future? Having used this thing for a while, I predict the
following: The glass, back lit, screen is not, in itself, distraction enough
to kill the technology, but an opaque non-glare surface would be better --
color would be even better. I predict that the device will improve in some
of these respects and it will get lighter and cheaper. When than happens,
this device will replace about as much of the print market as paperback
books has replaced hardbound books market.
I am not sure who will use this first. I am a 57 year old man but I am
comfortable with computers and already buy about 70% of my books and music
over the Internet.
*********************************************************
Millard Johnson -- INCOLSA -- http://incolsa.palni.edu
Zendog@incolsa.palni.edu
I would rather risk failure than achieve it without risk.
*********************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum [mailto:PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]
On Behalf Of Thom Gillespie
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 1998 1:43 PM
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: Re: ALA MidWinter - RMG's Ninth Annual Presidents' Seminar
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, Brian @ RMG Consultants wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
> NEWS RELEASE RMG Consultants, Inc. November 24, 1998
>
> "WILL E-BOOKS 'CHANGE THE GAME' FOR LIBRARIES?"
> is the topic of
> RMG's Ninth Annual Presidents' Seminar: The View from the Top
