Author: Michael Evans
Competition is good for business, particularly when it comes to buying electronic books. First we had Amazon and the Kindle, then Apple's iBookStore. Now, Google have announced the Google Editions e-book store for launch in June or July. Perhaps now we have some real competition we can look forward to electronic books becoming cheaper than traditional books with all their production costs, waste of resources, distribution and high-street store display areas. It is definitely good news for avid readers, particularly those using "open" platforms such as smartphones and the iPad. We can probably look forward to a Google Editions app for the iPad and iPhone/touch so users will have three main suppliers to choose from. Soon, now that e-books are no longer a novelty, competition must bring down prices.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Google’s announced entry into the eBook market is going to have an enormous effect on how eBooks are regarded by both the reading public and publishers.It is rather similar (but in a positive way) to the opening of a huge book shop next door to a collection of relatively smaller ones.I gather that most financial analysts believe that it will be a severe blow to Amazon, Apple and all the other online eBook sellers in the short term, but that in the long term everyone will profit in one way or another from Google becoming the largest eBook seller on earth.One note that hasn’t received much attention, rather to my surprise, is that Google plan to make their eBooks available to bricks and mortar book shops to sell. This is a real revolution! To be able to wander into your local book shop with your eBook reading device (whatever sort it is)and then purchase your chosen book in eBook format, rather than paper is an astonishing and very obvious development.I suspect that this will be the thing that truly establishes eBooks as a perfectly normal way of buying and reading books.