E-readers

The old saying "turning the page" - as in turning the page on a new year - could soon disappear faster than you can say 8-track tape.

That phrase, which conjures up visions of books with real leather bindings, is destined to go the way of rotary telephones, vinyl records and manual typewriters - things that many of us grew up with but which today draw blank stares from the younger generations.

According to Craig Berman, vice president of global communications at Amazon.com, the best-selling, most-wished for and most-gifted product among its millions of products the online company offers has been the Amazon Kindle, or wireless E-reader. The Barnes and Noble version of E-reader is called The Nook.

Essentially, these hand-held devices become your virtual library, having the capacity to hold as many as 1,500 books. The E-readers have the potential to revolutionize publishing.

Randy Bennett, of the Newspaper Association of America, feels that there may not be an immediate mass market, but there is a segment of the population that will be looking for that kind of platform for their news and information.

A number of other editors and writers feel that we've already passed the tipping point and that it's just a matter of time before E-book publishing becomes accepted among a mass audience.

It was nearly six centuries ago that a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg set this planet on a course to literacy with the invention of his mechanical behemoth called the printing press.

So, fellow page-turners, as we've now entered a new decade, brace yourselves!

This technology train is a fast-mover.

By Jim Zbick

jzbick@tnonline.com