Thanks for your comment.

ePub has definitely been a way forward and is probably the closest one can get right now in terms of portable content. PDF had done this earlier to a great extent and is still the format of choice for perfect copies.

Portability comes at the cost of DRM, as these formats tend to be open. Access rights can be enforced if all readers talk the same language or abide by the same rules. Till then, one has to choose between formats or take the trouble to access content through an online/offline experience on certain devices.

Thanks for your comment. You have shared some very interesting observations.

I totally agree that pricing, ease of access and value additions is what a publisher needs to experiment with to be relevant vs piracy or alternative content. Ebooks and electronic delivery channels provide interesting opportunities for publishers to do so.

Textbooks are indeed in a chicken and egg dilemma. The prices go up as there is a seconds market that brings about a need for revisions and the seconds market exists due to the higher prices. This cycle will continue till it is not sustainable, unless someone experiments on what else will work and breaks out of it.

On ebooks cannibalizing print sales, Oreilly’s experiments have proven that it does not - at least for their titles. Experimenting with a single or select titles may prove worthwhile as an effort to explore new business models.

While a title priced at $100 in the US can give a certain yield, the same title sold at say $10 as an ebook can increase elasticity in demand in markets like India or result in fringe markets that were not explored earlier.

An example may be: Textbooks of other publishers that are non-prescribed for a course, but may be interesting for cramming during exams or for the way the non-prescribed title handles a particular concept, can create such a fringe market where students may be willing to pay a small fee for a limited time access to the book during exams.

As you may have noticed, the use cases and usage behavior of how a book is read varies when it is in print or in electronic. This should also be considered when we talk electronic versions. While a print book is nice to own for reasons of longevity, it does not lend well for emergency searching for a topic during exams.

I certainly do not think that ebooks are meant as purchase for longevity reasons. I have personally gone out and bought books that I like in the electronic version as a print copy for exactly the same reasons. We have been trained over the years with different outdated software versions and licenses that are constantly renewed or re-purchased. Not to mention the hardware. This ephemeral nature of anything electronic is what lends micro-subscriptions to be possibly a wiser and viable choice in case of ebooks.