Conclusion

Ultimately, the success or failure of e-books depends not only on acceptance by users, but also on the publishing industry’s ability to see beyond traditional business models and to recognize that e-books are not a replacement for paper-based books. However, e-books are rapidly becoming a viable alternative and are providing growing advantages over the traditional medium. E-readers are still in the early stages of development and there is reason to hope that industry standards will soon be adopted. E-books complement rather than supplant printed books. While pixels and pulp will co-exist for a time, the inevitable move to e-books will be felt by libraries and by the publishing industry.

Table IList of various types of e-books with their characteristicsand major players

Table IISpecifications of select e-book reader hardware

Table IIISelect list of e-book reader software formats with hardware requirement and characteristics

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1020