Poker Perambulation

Well, it isn't all that catchy unless we can work in on a frosty morning, somehow.  But, the airwaves are already heating enough to make that impossible.  Apple is introducing their new pad to compete.  Sony has revised their line and has the lowest price point.  Jeff dropped the Kindle price in preparation for more competition.  Even if you don't know what a Kindle is or don't want one if you do, you've heard of it on the six o'clock.  It is one of those news cycles being run by the PR flacks.

 Up until now, the marketing has been directed at suckers early-implementers.  Otis did what travelers have done since time immemorial, he left his behind.  Ouch!.  It is a bad enough hit to leave a hard cover behind at today's prices.   His early implementation got him a tearful trip to airline hell looking for an item that was about twice today's declining pricing. And, he was on his first book with the thing – double ouch!

I like to read in the bathtub.  You can tell the books selected from the water damage.  A fancy book reader wouldn't fare as well.  There is something to be said for killing trees.

Convenience is a selling point.  You buy one of the e-books and it magically shows up minutes later.  But, I buy books in groups and so I am less than a minute away from the next one – assuming reasonable storage thinking.  So, I have a similar convenience.

When, I looked at the Kindle I looked at the prices.  Passing on the savings from not killing a tree doesn't seem part of the marketing plan.  There is a saving with hard cover but paperback stuff is about the same as a traditional book or a bit more.  Even the out of copyright stuff comes with a price tag.  On the web, you can get a ton of free books from various sites -- many that are even in print. Authors doing trilogies in particular are catching on that giving away the first volume is a big plus toward the end of the cycle.

The economics are there.  The traditional publishers are as stupid as the recording industry but their business plan is using this market as an add profit center.  Couple that to the price of a Kindle type reader and you need disposable income to try to justify the purchase.

This all will happen to our benefit over time.  The prices for the units will drop.  The HP model for printers will come to bear with the hardware becoming the lost leader.  Books will enter the niche that printer cartridges occupy.  We won't make out but the gouging will be ameliorated.

It is a great product for its time.  But that time isn't quite here.  Or at least it is only here on the six o'clock news filler.

ADDENDUM:

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