Do you believe that non-digital books and newspapers will become obsolete in 50

Question:

Do you believe that non-digital books and newspapers will become obsolete in 50 years? Ever?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Yes they will. We are in the middle of a literary revolution at the moment in which books are now being dual published for people that prefer digital copies or hard copies.

At the moment, there are no reasonably priced means for reading ebooks on the go, but the technology is completely available. It is possible to purchase UMPCs and Laptops between the sizes of 7-12 which are well-suited for reading ebooks due to their size and mobility; however, the technology is too expensive for it to be available to the common person. In fact there are even ebook readers available on the market today (priced around $300-$400).

As the technology becomes easier to manufacture, ebooks will become more common in distribution. Currently, some of the leaders in the field of ebooks are textbook publishers as they generally make a digital and non-digital book available to students (and some provide the ebook free with purchase of the hardcopy) which seems to be leading toward a future where digital books are common.

These ebooks are usually copyprotected like any music you purchase of iTunes or Napster and only allow a certain amount of computers access them.

I am currently using this technology for my reading and assignments. The technology allows me to highlight parts of an article, "clip" only what I need and save it, and make hand written notes in the margins. I appreciate it a lot and find that it is currently a bit limited, but find it highly mobile compared to carrying around 5 books. An advantage in some cases, is when reading I do not worry about what page I'm on because in some of the ebooks pages are eliminated therefore no more distraction by counting down the pages. As technology advanced, any limits I am experienced(mostly loading problems due to size of files and rendering them; though in some cases battery life can have an impact though it is yet to affect me negatively) will be fixed and the price of the technology will be greatly reduced making it easier to obtain by the public.

The plus side to using eBooks is keyword searching, reduced costs, and easier publishing. Publishers do not have to put on thousands of dollars to print solid books, instead they just upload the eBook to a server and when consumers purchase it they are given the ability to download it.