Mass market e-book transatlantic divide

Competitiveness of UK HE v the world is a hot topic so I wanted to look at push factors for ebook adoption in UK v US. Certainly a lot of work is going on in the e-textbook market but to help that take off, the mass market needs to help as well. UK HE / FE staff really only got into “computers” once they had a personal use for one. One college principal who had an early one per desk policy actively encouraged staff to surf for cheap holidays etc knowing that eventually it would filter down to them accepting e-learning at a more rapid rate. So will staff (and here I mean curriculum rather than librarians) push e-books textbooks to their students if they don’t use them in their personal life?

Well part of the factor in getting mainstream adoption is price, and a quick, dirty and absolutely statistically irrelevant survey around the web showed up interesting price differentials between the UK and US. For the “new” James Bond novel by Sebastian Faulks (don’t get me started on that issue- I’m with J D Salinger all the way) the US ebook non discounted price is 45% cheaper than the discounted UK ebook price. The UK discounted ebook price is itself 45% more expensive than the UK paperback list price. Now I know there are a ton of issues here – VAT, discounting, market differentials…. but if pricing is anywhere in the ballpark just described, mass take up of ebooks is surely gonna lag in the UK compared to the US in a way that we have never lagged before? (PC’s Video, DVD etc we are always up there with the US in early adopter stakes)

Arnie terminated paper books in KAL LIF FORNIA last week – suspect might be while before e-readers rise up to take control here….