An article

An interesting article here on a recent panel at "Untethered 2010 (Profitable Media in the Tablet Era)." It seems to have been generally more about how cool ereaders were than about how publishers can actually get readers to use them: Speakers were more than willing to talk about the cool things their devices and apps could do, and how widely we could expect them to spread in the near future, and there was even some talk of being responsive to consumer feedback, but nobody explained what readers were experiencing right now or what they really want from future devices.

A couple of quotes from the publishing side, from a discussion of "The Future of Book Publishing":

“Book publishing is not, contrary to what you may hear from time to time, in deep peril.”

“Our business model is not under threat… It’s about doing what we’ve always done — finding the best voices and marrying them to the best possible audience.”

“Publishers right now are learning about the fair market value of the product. Customers have [their own] perceptions of what content will [cost], and we’ll settle on some reasonable number. Enjoy the $9.99 bestseller while you can.”

And good quotes from Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: “How do you not know what the consumers want by now?” she’d asked me during our earlier conversation, in response to another panel where media executives appeared unsure of what readers expected from them. “Consumers are so eager to talk back to companies… I remain eternally dumbfounded by the idea that [publishers] don’t know what consumers want.”