A Post-Hype Playbook: Compete to Win in the eBook Marketplace

Executive Summary

For years, the widespread adoption of eBooks has been stalled. Critics have blamed everything from unwieldy reading devices to a lack of content standards.

But now new technology is ushering in better hardware and publishing formats that will soon allow consumers to read digital content comfortably and conveniently on portable reading devices. As a result, the market for eBooks is starting to show signs that it may finally be lining up with the publishing industry’s vision.

In fact, some analysts are forecasting that sales of eBooks will rise by 50 percent in 2007 and double by 2008, which is why industry powerhouses are accelerating their investments. Amazon.com, Sony, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are among the e-commerce and entertainment giants, while HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Random House lead the list of publishers embarking on eBook initiatives. Likewise, things are also heating up in Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing (STM) and professional publishing. Reed Elsevier recently announced that would it make more than 4,000 books available via Science Direct in the fall of 2007, while Springer and Wiley have also begun to offer professional and scientific texts online earlier this year...