eBooks Not Quite There Yet
Barnes and Noble has decided that eBooks aren’t ready for retail prime time yet. The decision to shut down their online eBook businesses is discussed in a CNET News article at news.com.com/2100-1019_3-5073796.html?tag=fd_top.
Ebooks seem to be a technology that makes sense from an engineering point of view, but doesn’t work for customers. Devices for reading are expensive and cumbersome, and while handheld computers are easy to carry around, their reduced screen size is a problem for many readers.
My concern in seeing turns like this is that the downdraft of ebook failure in the wider marketplace could slow or stop progress in the development of electronic textbooks for education. Kids don’t have the same problem with reading from a screen that most adults do, and it would be a huge chiropractic benefit to students to ditch spine-warping backpacks full of books for a portable electronic version. A laptop may be heavy, but it weighs a lot less than three middle-school textbooks.