I have my doubts that the new Apple iPad will be the panacea for traditional publishers who have been seeking ways to stem the engulfing tide of the e-book revolution that threatens to overwhelm their bottom line.

In their desperation to shore up their price points, they are overlooking the habits of their most passionate customers, their readers. The fact is that their most dedicated readers, those who buy most of their books, fiction, non-fiction, instructional, back lists, front lists and best sellers are not interested in purchasing a basket of distractions. Their primary interest, their principal motivation, is for the reading experience only, the content provided by words read in isolation and silence, not video, not telephones, not music, not games, not a tsunami of apps.

It is true that readers come in varying aspects of dedication. Many who buy books are casual readers of differing degrees of passion. But it is not the casual reader that is the backbone of the publishing industry.
When the dedicated reader enters a traditional bookstore, he or she is searching for a book, unadorned by other potential lures to their attention. They want the reading experience, whether it be a flight into the imagination provided by story tellers, or instructions on how to improve one’s life or care for their pets or offer varying points of view on politics, spirituality or whatever.

What Apple has created on its new iPad platform is a potpourri of lures and distractions that is technologically dazzling, offering infinite entertainment choices packaged for easy access, but it diminishes the exclusivity of the written word which is the principal reason why people buy books. It can be argued, of course, that books are presently only one among many choices offered to people in the real world and it has always been thus. What Apple has done is create a virtual living room filled with every conceivable way for a person to fill his or her time, a virtual media world.

But of all the media being offered in this marvelous package, the book is the most time consuming, requiring far more intellectual concentration than any of the other media geegaws offered in Apple’s virtual entertainment center. Perhaps I am making a biased judgment as a dedicated reader (and writer of books) who purchases books by the armload and stores and reads them on an electronic reader. As a dedicated reader, I am very mindful of how much I spend for the content I desire and enjoy the size and portability and ease of purchase of my current electronic reading device which has become my companion in all of my travels.

Sure I like the movies, make phone calls and access apps on my iPhone, including the App that allows me to continue reading my Kindle book on the Apple iPhone. Of all the electronic devices I own, I spend more time reading on my portable reading device than I do with any other instrument. Would I schlep around an iPad if I can get my reading fix from another more convenient portable device? I very much doubt it.
Of course there is a place for the iPad. The fact is, I am a loyal Apple fan and have long ago switched from a PC to an Apple, but as a dedicated reader, the iPad does not serve my most passionate need as a reader. Making the book an also-ran in a sea of other electronic gizmos will, in my opinion, not be the panacea the traditional publishers are looking for.