Here is my response to Journalist Danuta Kean’s article on e-book technology.
“…I think Danuta hits on a few very good points: one is that it is very hard to say that ereaders will explode along the same lines as the ipod, and secondly that the ebook format offers too much to not catch on.
It’s not just a matter of age that leaves her unsure of the technology’s future. I’m a student in his early 20’s, and I don’t know if a reading device will be able to embody a “mass-market coolness” in the way that the ipod has. Why? Because music is simply different to reading. I find it hard to picture an advertising campaign based on an ereader with the same impact of Apple’s dancing silhouettes in the ipod advert. Literature is something that it’s fans tend to enjoy due to its exclusivity. Of course I could be proved wrong…
My contemporaries and I are so used to the convenience of researching online that I’m sure a site selling electronic academic texts would make a killing. I’m sick of walking up to the library only to find that it’s closed due to a Bank Holiday, or that I haven’t got time to queue for the photocopier cos it’s nearly 7 pm. Both of these problems: access and distribution would not effect an e-book.”
