Which Is More Important--Price or The E-Reader Experience?

I'd just like to add another take on yesterday's article on future e-stars.

This article from mashable.com is a bit old, dating back to Christmas of last year (Christmas does seem to be an unusual theme in postings from these past two weeks!).

Philip Ruppel's predictions are in bold.  My responses follow.

1. Enhance e-books are coming and only getting better.  Given the intense competition, this is hardly a surprise.

2. The Device War Is Nearly Over.  Here Philip Ruppel, president of McGraw-Hill publishing, explains (in the article) that "Because most developers are developing e-reader software that will work on multiple other devices (Kindle also works on the iPad, iPhone, and computers, for example), consumers will care less about the device and more about the user experience of the e-reader software, portability of titles from one device to another, and access to a full catalog of titles."

Little old me agrees that the e-reader experience, access to catalogs, and compatability will be huge factors, but I don't think those will result in less competition between device providers or end the proliferation of e-readers.  Marketing is just too powerful, and we are all victims of marketing to one extent or another.  Just as word of mouth sells books, word of mouth from trusted friends and authorities will continue to sell e-reading devices, leading companies to constantly vie to stay ahead in the technology.  This competition, and the paying audience's response to it, will lead to Ruppel's prediction #1 in my opinion.

3.  The $9.99 E-Book Won’t Last Forever.  I definitely agree here, for the immediate future.  I still feel that major publishers, as much as they customize and improve the e-reader experience, will need to market an effective price to audiences.  Honestly, as simplistic as it is, it's just hard to argue that an e-book, even with a refined reading (or even intereactive) experience, shouldn't be noticeably cheaper than its print counterpart.  So long as customers can't see (tangibly) why e-books should cost more, they'll expect to pay less.  Amazon, Kobo, Sony, Google, and others will do everything in their power in the next few years to make sure that customers do just that.

4. The Contextual Upsell Will be a Business Model to Watch.  Ruppel writes: "E-books allow publishers to interact with their customers in new ways."  He uses an example of a student stuck on a problem receiving help.  I agree here, but with two exceptions: this is true more so for non-fiction titles than for fiction.  It seems that features like those, while neat, will only be truly applicable to a specialized part of the marketplace.  As for fiction, if it does factor in, I believe this could be a dividing point between cheaper conventional reading experiences and more interactive experiences that will cost more.

5. Publishers Will Be More Important Than Ever.  Ruppel notes here that: "Commodity content is everywhere (and largely free), so high-quality vetted, edited content — which takes a staff of experts — will be worth a premium."  For Ruppel's line of publishing, I imagine this will be so.  For areas that are less specialized, it isn't as applicable.  Name recognition and branding apply, and those can be done online.  This isn't to say publishers won't have the benefit of their years of marketing experience.  It's just to say that this won't be success that's exclusive to them.

But what do I know?  Only this: the future of publishing will be exciting to watch (if only from the outside).