Make no mistake, the iPad and its brethren from Amazon and Barnes and Noble are changing the way people read books. Gone are the days of going to the bookstore and rummaging through the shelves only to find a book that is labeled as new, but looks like it has been read 100 times before.
Sure the local bookstore still has its merits. They have good coffee, nice chairs to lounge around in, and they usually have a section with every magazine under the sun. But is the landscape of the brick and mortar bookstore changing? In my opinion no not really, but I think some adaptation is on the horizon. The bookstore of the future will have to adapt to the new style "iBooks Store" business model. Perhaps bookstores of the future will offer a 2 tier type of service. Follow me on this for a second.
BARNES AND NOBLE
My wife loves to read. However, she refuses to use an eBook reader. Hardbacks are what she likes. Says it gives her the feeling that you are "getting what you paid for" so to speak. I can follow her on that. There is something about holding a physical book in your hands. Once you are done throw it on a shelf to show everyone that you actually finished a book like War and Peace is a big accomplishment. I, on the other hand couldn't care less about a physical book, and actually I would love to save the shelf space for more important things like my Star Wars collection. I am a technology nut by nature, so having my book collection in a virtual format is just fine with me. Plus I am able to find twice as many publications via online services than I have ever found in a physical book store.
So, what will the future hold for Barnes and Noble and the like? This is tough to speculate on, but I see perhaps a 2 prong approach to selling books. Amazon already has its Kindle app for iPad and other eReaders, but this app lacks features in many ways. Apple has their iBooks app, which is really nice, but the books are so expensive they rival physical book prices, which to me is highway robbery.
The bookstore of the future will need to please the techno savvy book reader as well as the old school types like my wife, who love the feeling of having an actual book in their hand. But how will they accomplish this?
What if bookstores offered a way to sit down in a nice chair, sip some Colombian coffee, and browse an online database of books available to download right to your eReader on the spot? I would love to see this type of services available in bookstores to the general public. I think will allow them to compete with online services like Apple's iBooks app, and Amazons kindle app for all eReaders. Finding a middle ground of selling cheap books in digital format, and also selling the physical books for the old schoolers out there will be the key to staying in business.
iBooks Store - Changing the Way the World Reads Books BARNES AND NOBLE
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