I caught a discussion among some writers about titles missing from Kindle when a publisher doesn’t like Amazon’s pricing.
Some suggested that Amazon better be careful now that Apple has announce the iPad.. the giant iPod touch the will be out soon… claiming “the timing couldn’t be worse for Amazon”
The timing couldn’t be better.
Amazon, Apple, or somebody is going to discover new ways of getting books to people. Whoever does will win the ebook distribution war.
The Apple iPod was not the first mp3 player.. Jobs was the first to take on the music publishers and win. The “game changer” is not the pretty new hardware.. it will be the distribution deals that give consumers what they want.
Imagine a future where the quantity of books sold without killing a tree equals the number of ringtones purchased. Sure, there would be some low prices, some piracy, some
I can’t say where things will end.. but it’s clear that we won’t be going back to publishing of yesterday. That’s gone for good.