DIGITAL BOOKS

The Future of Digital Books
“Less than 500,000 electronic books were sold in the United States in 2002, compared with more than 1.5 billion printed books, estimates research firm Ipsos-Insight in Chicago…….Still, Palm, Microsoft and Adobe continue to improve their respective reader software, which are free…..(It is estimated that) PalmGear, whose offerings range from "Beowolf" to best-sellers by Stephen King and Al Franken, will sell some 1.3 million e-books over the next 12 months.” By Franklin Paul, Yahoo News Technology/Reuters International Report, September 14, 2003.

“Barnes & Noble.com Ends E-Book Sales”
Lead: “Barnes & Noble.com, once an aggressive competitor in the electronic market, stopped selling e-books Tuesday, citing both limited sales and limited technology.” By Hillel Italie, Yahoo News Entertainment AP, September 10, 2003.

My guess is that the advances in display technology will eventually save the day. When we have cheap, high resolution, flexible display technology, we will have e-books. And my guess is that will be in a decade or so.