E-book evangelists are still at it. They still think that e-books will make regular old paper books disappear...


This, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune by Alex Beam. The evangelists believe, as did those who pushed the original SoftBook back in 2000-2001, that people will now want to read books on their iPods and cellphone screens.
It turns out I wrote an article we published here on MarketingProfs almost 6 years ago that, based on the history we know about the adoption of new innovation, argued that e-books wouldn't take off as pundits predicted. The article was also published on the now defunct Upside.com and, as a result, I got tons of emails from people who said I was nuts. Of course, they said, e-books was the way of the future and that kids who grew up playing video games would embrace the idea. Really?
Anyway, don't take it from me. Read the IHT article and decide for youself. As for me, I'm a great believer in new technology, but not techologies that purport to be solutions for non-existent problems.