Last week's release of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite offered an opportunity to look back on the rapid growth of e-reading, and look forward to what the digitization of publishing will mean to four major market forces: publishers, bookstores, authors and readers. As during any technological disruption, winners and losers trade fates until the upheaval settles and a new cycle of status quo begins.

Amazon is not the only bookstore represented in the scramble for new-era survival, but its major role has multiple dimensions: seller, publisher, enabler, inventor and primary instigator of disruption. Amazon is banking on being a winner, and was recently handed an advantage by the U.S. government in its uneasy relationship with publishers.

While industrial forces work their way through the dislocation of new paradigms, individuals -- both book consumers and book authors -- stand to be the biggest winners, and that is a good thing.

Continue reading Editorial: Bring on the digital overthrow of publishing

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablets, Wireless, Amazon

Editorial: Bring on the digital overthrow of publishing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

<h6 style="clear: both; padding: tease.gifx 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6>Permalink | | Email this | Comments
[img]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5KDrfvRszSWaFsjtNYAnG7mYZoM/0/di[/img]</img>

[img]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/5KDrfvRszSWaFsjtNYAnG7mYZoM/1/di[/img]</img>


[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=EV2NLZXCIII:hEMnV2wvtiE:wF9xT3WuBAs[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=EV2NLZXCIII:hEMnV2wvtiE:V_sGLiPBpWU[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=EV2NLZXCIII:hEMnV2wvtiE:-BTjWOF_DHI[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?d=qj6IDK7rITs[/img]</img>
[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/EV2NLZXCIII[/img]

View the full article

View the full article