With the new Kindle's September release imminent and rumours that its price could be cut to $99 (£64) by Christmas, the iPad selling like hot cakes and other e-readers chewing at the printed page, how much longer can the local bookshop last?
One answer: not very much longer.
In my hometown of Brighton (UK) I have seen the closure of many small independent bookshops as well as national chains such as Borders. We are now left with Waterstones , WH Smiths, a couple of cut-price stores and the bonk busters being sold in the book section of Asda.
Cheap e-readers are only going to accelerate this decline. So far in the UK they have only been a niche product, but with Amazon pushing its latest Kindle hard they are just about to explode into the main stream.
With a growing selection of titles available and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pouring pressure on publishers to reduce the cost of their digital editions, the remaining barriers to widespread adoption of e-books are fast evaporating. And with them goes the expensive retail space of the local bookshop.
So here’s my prediction:
Apart from a few specialised outlets, independent bookshops will be completely dead within five years. All the big chains will close their high street branches in ten. The majority of libraries will be entirely e-book by 2025 - and with the way our current Government is slashing budgets probably sooner.
Like vinyl and CDs, the printed book will soon become nothing more than a quaint reminder of our past only seen on special editions of the Antiques Roadshow.
Posted via email from fakingIt
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