"Playing With Fire: Amazon Launches $200 Tablet, Slashes Kindle Prices"
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/amazon/
So, a tablet for $199 and a Kindle for $79? We are entering territory
where almost everyone can get one. For the Kindle, I have compared it to
average book prices (in British pounds) that I found at
http://www.holtjackson.co.uk/cgi-perl/web_avg_book_price.pl. Average
prices were (after conversion):
Adult fiction: 16.15 USD
Adult nonfiction: 30.79 USD
Childrens' fiction: 10.59 USD
Childrens' nonfiction: 13.69 USD
From this, it seems that anywhere from 2.5 books to about 7 books will
pay for one of these new Kindles, that is so long as you read public
domain books. For a Kindle Fire, it will be anywhere from 7 books to 20,
and with a tablet of course, you can also listen to music and watch
movies, surf the web, plus lots more.
Prices for the ebook versions are still not much cheaper than for
print--hard copy at that! But there is less and less of a hurdle to
people buying the ebooks/tablets, while we can all assume the prices
will go down even more. People will want to borrow ebooks from the
library, but maybe Amazon will do that, too. See "The birth of the
Kindle Fire and the death of the public library"
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97335-the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library
<http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97335-the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library>
where the author writes,
"Amazon announced that Prime subscribers (free, two-day shipping for $80
per year) will also get free access to almost 3,000 Fox TV shows and
movies
<http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sv_mov_aiv_3?ie=UTF8&node=2858778011&field-is_prime_benefit=1>
--- an awesome prospect for any web surfer or tablet user --- but more
importantly, there are tantalizing hints that Prime users will also get
access to a Kindle /e-book library/.
Let that sink in for a moment: for $80 per year, you would get unlimited
library-like access to Amazon's e-books. That's the cost of 10 paperback
books --- and ignoring the fact of whether you can read 10 books per
year, let's not forget that you also get free shipping and Fox TV shows
and movies for the same $80."
Changes are taking place at a bewildering pace now. How can libraries
fit in, or even keep up?
I think that there is a huge need for librarians, but the field needs to
take stock to figure out what it is that we provide that is genuinely
unique, and build on those strengths.
<http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97335-the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-birth-of-the-kindle-tablet-and-the-death-of-the-public-library>
--
James Weinheimer weinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
First Thus: http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
Cooperative Cataloging Rules: http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
Received on Wed Sep 28 2011 - 15:37:21 EDT