The eBook is 40 (1971-2011) Part 15

# December 2006

"There are at least two emerging trends [in the digital book]: (a) an increasingly attractive and functional interface for reading/consultation (navigation, searching, restructuring on the fly, annotations of the user, interactive quiz); (b) a multimedia integration (video, sound, animated graphics, database) now strongly coupled to the web. No physical book offers such features. So I imagine the ebook of the future as a kind of wiki crystallized and packaged in a given format. How valuable will it be? Its value will be the one of a book: the unity and quality of editorial work!" (Marc Autret, graphic designer and founder of the website Indiscripts in 2009)

# January 2007

"The luck we all have is to live this fantastic change here and now.

When I was born in 1963, a computer memory could only hold a few pages of characters. Today, my music player could hold billions of pages, a true local library. Tomorrow, by the combined effect of the Moore Law and the ubiquity of networks, we will have instant access to works and knowledge. We won't be much interested any more on which device to store information. We will be interested in handy functions and beautiful objects." (Pierre Schweitzer, designer of the @folio project in 1996)

# August 2007

"The digital book is not any more a topic for symposiums, conceptual definitions, or divination by some 'experts'. It is a commercial product and a tool for reading. (...) We need to offer books that can be easily read on any electronic device used by customers, sooner or later with an electronic ink display. And to offer them as an industry. The digital book is not, and will never be, a niche product (dictionaries, travel guides, books for the blind). It is becoming a ma.s.s market product, with multiple forms, like the traditional book." (Denis Zwirn, founder of the digital bookstore Numilog in 2000)

# April 2010

"The internet has taken more and more s.p.a.ce in my life! On 1st April 2010, I became a publisher after some painful training in Photoshop, InDesign, and other software. (...) In the end, there will always be unexpected developments to new inventions, among other things. When I started using the internet [in 1999], I really didn't expect to become a publisher." (Catherine Domain, founder of Librairie Ulysse in 1971)

# June 2011

"I never liked reading a book on a computer or PDA. Now, with tablets like the Kindle of the iPad, I am finally reading ebooks. I see a huge expansion of digital reading with tablets that are easy to use and with a very large choice of ebooks thanks to electronic commerce and companies like Amazon. (...) I also use online books to learn the art of innovation!" (Henk Slettenhaar, founder of the Swiss Silicon Valley a.s.sociation in 1992)