I was in a local video hire store the other day and the first thing I noticed was that there were no videos! Not a single one. And if it’s happened in Wanganui, it must have happened everywhere! Now they need to change their name from Video Ezy to DVD Ezy! Thinking about this change … well, it seems a long time coming.
The final silent death of the hired video doesn’t surprise any of us. VCRs haven’t been for sale for years and everyone has a DVD player because they’re really cheap. DVDs have replaced videos like CDs replaced tapes. If anything is suprising, it’s how long it takes for some industries (and people) to read the writing on the wall, finally give their last argument and either change or give up the fight. Have you noticed that schools are now being ‘gifted’ people’s VCRs? Like they get given old computers! (Thanks a lot … yeah right!) Maybe some things will never change!
Music is another thing. The music industry is apparently ‘in trouble’, given the huge world-wide use of MP3 players, Internet downloading and file sharing sites. How long can music stores survive without changing from selling CDs to selling downloads, I wonder?
Something else that puzzles me is how long it’s taking for books to change. I can’t see a future for paperbacks, text books, or telephone books. Money and convenience will eventually dictate a change. Sony has recently developed and marketed an eBook Reader in the US. 
This looks to be the size of a large paperback and almost as thin as an ipod. It costs $US350. Eleven thousand books are presently available to download from the Connect eBooks. The ebooks cost about $5 each.
I can’t find any mention of it on Sony’s New Zealand site though and will need to investigate further to find out if it is available in New Zealand.
What will ebooks and ebook readers mean for the future of book stores and libraries? Will they become download centres with no hard copy books at all? Will they require name changes too? And what about schools? Will teachers have a class set of eBook Readers? Imagine … you would have access to your whole library and virtual resource room all day; processing would be minimised; no repairing of books and no more having to return piles of junior readers! Reading habits could be tracked and analysed. It sounds fantastic! I wonder how long will it take?
technorati tags:Music, Video, DVD, eBook, ebook, reader, library, change, school, books, Sony, New Zealand
I still think there will be a place for good old fashioned books in our lives. In my mind I equate it with vinyl-cd-digital progression. Sure we now tend to use digital format to listen to our music, but if your steps through the doors of a REALLY high end Audio store, you will notice some interesting things.
The first is that vinyl is cool…you can pay some serious bucks for a turntable! Then go even further and look at the amplifiers, the very expensive ones, the ones that give the BEST sound are….valve amplifiers, you know the ones your Grandad had back when you were a kid. Funny Huh? Some things are just better simple.
So I look at reading in the same way. While the masses may happily turn to digital books for their daily reading, I do think it would be great to have a newspaer on digital paper! And I can see many applications in the classroom and business for digital text.
But at the end of the dayI feel many will still want to curl up with a good set of pages, and feel the paper under our fingers.
Hey, Iain. Interesting info. The retro thing, eh? Sadly my Beatles LPs are long gone. As for books, I have to say that if you’re reading in the bath, a paperback book is best!
Hi Lyn,
It certainly is an interesting development. However, I think that books will be around for a very long time for certain uses.
For example, at the elementary school where I work, I have completely switched to electronic books. Now, instead of having rows and rows of books gathering dust on the shelves, I have all my supplies conveniently stored on my laptop for portability and even quicker reference. I’ve bought all my books at http://www.dedicatedteacher.com, and have found them to be cheaper, easy to browse, and less time consuming to purchase than regular teaching books.
That being said, when I get home I’ve usually been staring at a screen for several hours at work, and reading a book for fun off of my computer screen is not appealing. For me, digital books will never replace print as far as recreational reading goes. Keep in mind, unlike dvd vs vcr, we’re not talking about the same media being presented in an improved way, we’re looking at a completely different way of viewing literature. Case in point, the amount of people who prefer print over eBooks: some people will never give up their novels, no matter what. In comparison, when was the last time you heard someone say they prefer vhs tapes to dvd?
Either way, I expect to see eBooks making big inroads into our professional lives, but it remains to be seen whether or not ereaders will completely replace books.
Keep up the great blog,
Joan
I agree Joan – its easier to read a paperback on the beach, in bed, or in the bath!
Thanks for your kind words about my blog.