iPhone4idiots

Last week Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, revised its earnings forecast downward for 2012. It expects to lose about $1.20 per share due in large part to heavy investment in the Nook. While painful for shareholders it makes sense as the brick and mortar stores are dinosaurs. I’m amazed how long it takes for outdated inefficient products to die. Our kids will laugh at us when we tell them how much time we wasted driving to a bookstore. Walking up and down aisles looking for a book as opposed to a quick download. I’ll probably be too embarrassed to tell them how much I paid for a new release in hardback. I don’t want to hear anyone wax nostalgic about being able to hold a book either. You can still take a horse and carriage ride in many downtown areas if that’s your thing. To me all they do is put a big pile of crap on the street for someone to clean up. Besides, technology will soon create some sort of display for you to hold and get a similar feeling without harming any trees. Yes, for those that can’t accept change you can still find the horse and carriage, typewriter, walkman and Polaroid somewhere. Although, Kodak is on the verge of bankruptcy according the Wall Street Journal. Like Blockbuster and Tower Records, the death of bookstores is progress. It’s not all bad for book lovers. There will still be government funded public library’s around. Just hopefully they are filled with iPad’s and E-Readers as opposed to shelves of dead trees collecting dust.

The death of books is coming as clearly as the death of newspapers. An Association of American Publishers study found that E-book sales totaled $90.3 million in February which was more than either hardcover or paperback. This was up 202% from the previous year. The growth rate shouldn’t slow down anytime soon as more and more kindles and iPads are sold. I’ve mentioned before how I think this is a good thing. Why waste time going to the library when things can be found and downloaded online? For those with poor eyesight the E-book offers a way to easily increase text size and font. Yes, there will come a time in our lifetime where finding books won’t be so easy. Every Kindergarten student in one Maine school district has been given an iPad 2 as they were deemed, “more important than books”. Been to the public library lately? Many are starting to offer iPads and Kindles for checkout while shelf space for paperbacks and hardcovers disappears. Yes, I think in twenty years it is likely our children will have little physical contact with what we used to call books. Hardcovers and paperbacks won’t be found in our schools and if a universal format for E-books can be found as opposed to telling our children to go read a book teachers might be saying go look at a pdf.