(2007-12-11) Market Intell Now Ebook Adoption

Market Intell Now did a research study finding that pricing is the primary barrier to EBook adoption by readers.

Tim OReilly thinks that real low pricing won't change unit sales that much, because people only have so much time to read (Attention Economy). But isn't this undercut by his point: It's true that new price points can sometimes attract new readers - that's what happened with the rise of the paperback. But note that as paperbacks became the dominant format, outselling hardbacks, prices rose substantially for both paperbacks and hardbacks. It sounds like low pricing worked fine, it's just that the publishers chose to go for margin instead of volume.

• Tim also notes he doesn't see Advertising as a replacement. See [z2007-09-28-SearlsJournalismBizModels].

Ben Vershbow can't make up his mind.

Everyone's thinking about subscription models.