E-books. How far can we take them?

I'm sure you're probably familiar with the term "e-book." The pioneer for this movement can be credited to the Kindle, which is one of Amazon's most highly toted products. There are other competitors out there, but none as popular as the Kindle. So, there are alternatives, some of which are cheaper, but the point is that this this isn't just a fad.

I recently read that for every 100 books sold on Amazon, they are selling 105 e-books. Three years ago when e-books were hovering around $300+ per device, it would have been hard to image this ever happening. As with most technology however, supply and demand has worked it's ways to be able to offer these devices at more than half of their price in 2008. With most tech products, the key is to get them to a price-point where the consumer believes they are getting a "good deal." The numbers speak for themselves in this case, but that just means that this doesn't stop here.

Remember when you were in school and you had to drag around those backpacks full of books and folders? Eventually we had lockers, but most of us had a significant amount of paper we were still lugging around. Let's be honest. Those suckers got heavy! At $114 a piece now, with the potential to go significantly lower, wouldn't it make sense to issue these in schools for a test run? Personally, I see these making a significant presence in schools, especially as a way to make sure that your curriculum is up-to-date. The 3G technology that is enable on most of these devices would allow us to be able to download new course books, rather than having to storm the book stores at the beginning of each semester. Another logical step if proven successful would be to include quizzes or tests within book chapters. This would allow software industries to get involved and possibly get a piece of the e-book pie as well.

The truth is, we really can take this convenient technology and run with it. I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think we will be seeing a dramatic increase in cost for these devices over time as well as significant integration in our education. But, I guess only time will tell.