There’s been a lot of speculation lately about what the future of reading will look like. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard a lot about the Kindle and a lot of peoples various opinions on what impact, if any, it will have on the publishing industry.
For those rock-dwellers out there, the kindle is Amazon’s handheld device for reading e-books and other electronic media. Since the original Kindle came out in late 2007, two new versions, the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, have already been released.
The Kindle isn’t the first attempt to replace paper books with digital counterparts, but it has certainly been the most talked-about and the most successful. Amazon has even developed a “Kindle for iPhone” app.
So should we all be looking for a new line of work? Is the paper book destined to go the way of the dodo? Will the Kindle kill the used book business?
No.
The first video ever broadcast on MTV, way back in 1981, was a song called “Video killed the Radio Star”. Only it didn’t. Turn on your radio and you’ll still find news, music, politics, advice and more up and down the dial. Video may have killed radio serials like The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, but that’s about it.
The same principle holds true for the Kindle. Sure it may absorb part of the reading market, (more…)