There is a certain inevitability that ebook saleshave now overtaken paperback sales on Amazon'sUS site. Amazon's Kindle 2 is so light and so cheapthat it's easy to see why people have rushed to buyit. Though I'm still not keen on the design of the Kindle, it is a vast improvement on itspredecessor and certainly tolerable. Beyond the device itself, Amazon has done a great jobof rolling out Kindle apps, ensuring that people like me-who have an iPad but not a Kindle-canstill join in the fun. Once you're into the Kindle ecosystem, Amazon locks you in tightly-just asApple does with its iTunes/ iPod ecosystem. It's so easy to buy from Amazon's store and thebooks are so cheap that it's not worth the effort of going elsewhere.

　　While I remain opposed to Amazon's DRM (数字版权管理)-indeed, I'm opposed to DRM onany ebooks-I have to admit that the implementation is so smooth that most Kindle userswon't care at all that their ebooks can't be moved to other devices.

　　The ebook trend is nowhere near peaking. Over the next five years we can expect to seemore and more readers move away from printed books and pick up ebooks instead. But I don'tthink that will mean the death of the printed book.

　　There are some who prefer printed books. They like having shelves filled with books they'veread and books they plan to read; they like the feel of the book in their hands and the differentweights and typefaces and layouts of different titles. In other words, they like the physical formof the book almost as much as the words it contains.

　　I can sympathise with those people. As I wrote earlier this week, my ideal situation would befor publishers to bundle ebooks with printed ones-in much the same way that film studiosbtmdie DVDs with digital copies of films. There's no reason to think that lovers of printed bookswill change their minds. There will undoubtedly be fewer of them as time goes by because morepeople will grow up with ebooks and spend little time with printed ones. However, just as thereare people who love vinyl records(黑胶唱片), even if they were born well into the CD era, therewill still be a dedicated minority who love physical books.

　　Since there are fewer of these people, that will mean fewer bookshops and higher prices forprinted books but I don't think the picture is entirely bleak. There is scope for smaller printruns of lavishly designed printed books and bookshops aimed at book lovers, rather than theStieg Larsson-reading masses. With mainstream readers out of the printed book market, booklovers might even find they get a better experience.