I picked a good week to make the bear's case for e-books. Amazon just announced a new Kindle. It's smaller and lighter than ever, and if you are willing to forego the 3G and just get books via wifi, the entry level price is now $139.
And BN is putting huge Nook boutiques in all of its stores.
On the other hand, the falling prices for hardware are indicative of the fact that 1.) the market for expensive e-readers is exhausted and 2.) the iPad is cutting into the market for these devices, and the price lever is the only weapon dedicated e-readers have against the all-purpose juggernaut.
or
3) Instead of subsidizing e-books to make money on hardware, Amazon is now subsidizing hardware to make money on e-books. Maybe the self-published and Amazon-published titles are looking very lucrative.
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