Springer, one of the biggest technical and scientific publishers in the world, will offer digital version of all its new collections, starting with the books copyrighted in 2004.
The technology and interest in e-books has been around since the late 1990s, but because the electronic reading devices were expensive and only a limited number of e-book titles were available, sales fell short of expectations. That’s not to say the e-books market is absent – it’s estimated to be a $75 million market. John Wiley & Sons have been selling electronic books since 2001, and now sells about 1800 titles.
Manufacturers are tinkering with the older readers, as Philips, Sony, and Tianjin Jinke Electronics unveiled new e-book devices that are more powerful than earlier devices and have a higher storage capacity and clearer screen visibility. Big and small companies are beginning to invest in the market, but “the growth will be incremental and it won’t be iPod-like,” said Nick Bogaty of the International Digital Publishing Forum.
Springer will sell books by copyright year, beginning with the books copyrighted in 2004. The prices range from Euro 94,000, or $119,000, for a small university to Euro 285,000 for a large institution. The publishing house has promised to offer a total of 10,000 titles without any technical restriction on sharing or usage. As a result, universities purchasing these titles gets to decide how to make the books available to all its users. The university gets to keep the purchased titles for permanent use, without expirations, as is often the case.
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