Is print media as we know it destined for retirement?

In recent months we have seen speculation and excitement about the launch of new devices from Apple and Microsoft, the ‘Tablet’ and ‘Courier’ respectively. Already, Amazon sells 48 Kindle copies for every 100 physical copies of books that it offers in both formats – up from 38 five months ago. Today, Amazon announced the release of an ‘international’ version of the Kindle although at this stage it’s still not available in New Zealand (http://tiny.cc/s1P78).

So what does this all mean for the humble book? Will libraries of the future only exist in digital form? Instinct tells us that people won’t want to give up the touch of paper and the comfort that comes from reading a physical book, paper, or magazine. But didn’t instinct tell us the same thing about Vinyl, Tapes and CD’s? We have a lot to learn from the music industry and it’s inability to keep pace with changing consumer consumption. The shift from paper to screens will happen. We have seen it begin with a shift in news from print to online, we are seeing it in books and it’s only a matter of time until the cumulative impact of online access and appropriate devices or ‘readers’ tip the scale. The big question is how quickly will it happen?

Speculative design of the Apple Tablet