The other thing to bear in mind about the Kindle is that the cost of
the books is somewhat cheaper than the printed editions. I read this
somewhere. I have not checked closely but here is one chosen at
random that costs $10 on Kindle and $16.50 on paper (G. Ifill, "The
Breakthrough")
On the other hand, Obama's book costs $10 on Kindle and only $8 on
paper. It seems most books cost $10 on Kindle . . .
Here is one by A. C. Clarke, "Fountains of Paradise," $8 on Kindle,
$18 paperback.
The pricing is confusing, but anyway, I suppose that people who read
many books may soon recoup the $360 cost of the gadget.
It stands to reason that electronic books are cheaper, and will
remain cheaper, since they cost so little to distribute. Amazon.com
does not have a monopoly for e-books. Google is coming after them.
All publishers will soon realize they have to compete.
I have been keeping tabs on the distribution cost of electronic
documents closely for many years now because I pay for LENR-CANR.org.
(It used to be a large burden but it is no longer, I am happy to
report.) The decline in cost per megabyte is astounding, even to
someone used to computers. My guess is that this correlates with the
decline in hard disk storage costs perhaps even more than fiber optic
and other falling telecommunications costs. Last I checked, hard disk
cost per unit of capacity (bytes, in this case) has fallen even more
dramatically than any other computer components, such as RAM memory
bytes or CPU cycles.
- Jed
