By
Thomas McConnell
Americans
born between the early 1980s and early 2000s have been deemed as
products of the “Millenial Generation”, “Generation Y”, or
the “Technology Generation”. These Americans, and people around
the world born in this time period, are characterized by their
obsession with technology. In the past 10 years alone, there have
been countless technological advancements that have drastically
altered the day-to-day routine of Americans. From social networks,
to video conferences, to printers that can assemble weapons,
technology continues to evolve, and it’s up to Americans to adapt
to these developments or get left behind. If any industry can attest
to this, it is the book industry.
For
centuries, paperback and hard-cover books had been the only means for
Americans to read their favorite books. Brick and mortar stores such
as Borders, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble were commonplace in just
about every mall in the country. The upsurge of electronic books,
commonly known as “e-books”, has changed all this.
Many
historians consider the first e-books to have been invented in the
1960s as part of the NLS project conducted at Stanford Research
Institute. Others consider the first to be patented by Angela Ruiz,
a teacher from Gallatia, Spain, in 1949. Despite these early
developments, electronic books did not begin their surge as the
leading choice for readers around the world until the new millennium
came in.
In
2004, Sony introduced the Sony Librie, the first electronic book
reader that utilized “e-ink”, a special type of electronic ink
created by the E Ink Corporation in 1997. Amazon followed suit with
the launching of the Kindle, now the most popular e-book reader on
the market, in the U.S. in 2007. In 2008, Books On Board became the
first online bookstore to offer e-books for iPhones.
Following
these innovations, readers slowly but surely began to shift their
focus away from the brick and mortar bookstore on the second floor of
their local mall, and toward their laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
E-books provided customers with a cheaper, more convenient
alternative to buying and reading books. This newfound alternative
has served as a great development to e-book readers, online
bookstores, and many customers; not so much for brick and mortar
bookstores.
In
the year 2012, for the first time ever, online bookstores accounted
for more book sales than brick and mortar bookstores. Through
November of that year, 43.8% of books were sold online, while just
31.6% were sold in large retailers. As of 2012, chain booksellers’
market share of the book industry fell to 19%, while e-retailers
market share had increased to about 38%.
No
corporation was hit harder by the evolution of electronic books than
Borders. Borders lead the movement of big-box booksellers, and
operated more than 1200 stores at its peak. After numerous quarters
of decreased sales and stock prices, Borders announced its plan to
close the doors to all of its stores and go out of business for good
in 2011. By September of that year, the last operating locations of
the store had been closed, and Barnes & Noble acquired Borders’
trademarks and customer list.
“We
were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds
we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly
changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy,
have brought us to where we are now."
This
is a statement given by Mike Edwards, President of Borders Group,
regarding the closing of the company’s stores. While we can’t
ignore the impact of the recession that devastated our country’s
economy for a few years around the time of the company’s closing,
Borders can attest its inability to maintain sales they had
experienced in the 1990s and early 2000’s to the “rapidly
changing book industry” and the “eReader revolution”, or rather
the company’s failure to adapt to these changes. Companies like
Amazon foresaw this “revolution”, and made changes in their
operations and invested in new technologies, namely the “Kindle”,
and they are still functioning as a result.
The
sales results for e-books and brick and mortar bookstores for the
year of 2013 will be released in the upcoming months, and the numbers
will more than likely be even more promising for electronic
retailers, and more deflating for chain booksellers. With the
continued rise of smartphones, online bookselling apps, and the
electronic retail industry as a whole, for bookstores to maintain
their market share and avoid the same fate that Borders suffered in
2011, adaptation to these innovations in technology is the only
option.
Video
highlighting the effect of e-books on physical book sales:
NBC News article detailing the closing
of Borders bookstores:
Article further discussing the rise of
electronic booksellers
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