The e-book has landed! The final boundary of the type-written word breached by a digital tide that has transformed the way we process, relay and absorb information. So what now? With the launch in Britain this week of the Sony Reader, capable of storing 160 novels and reportedly weighing less than 9 ounces, should we be preparing to mourn the death of an old familiar friend or celebrating the final siege of "the last bastion of analogue"(1) - the printed book?

Now I don't know if this is something to be proud of, but I am still of the generation that is instantly transported to childhood nostalgia by the musty smell of leather book bindings and reassured by the crisp sound and feel of paper between my fingers. I appreciate my leisurely reading time, unhindered by processing speed, battery life and the compulsion to squeeze in a quick read before my next client meeting.

Frankly, the issue of e-books leaves me feeling like Alice in Wonderland - a little, how should I say, schizophrenic? On the one hand, there's a Queen of Hearts inside baying to get her hands on the latest digital assault weapon; on the other, a simpering white rabbit needing to retreat down its bolt hole to recapture lost time.

But here's the rub. As that very enlightened 1939 jazz song goes: "T'aint What you Do (It's the Way that You Do It)". War and Peace on e-book? No thanks! An ability - finally - to easily decipher and digest, via a hand-held device, client literature, corporate information and briefing documentation on the move? Why, not?

In the whole communications armoury that marketing and PR professionals have assiduously developed over the last decades, perhaps the creation of a corporate e-book will one day find its place in this digital and paper-conscious age.

Back in the Nineties, at the onset of the digital imaging boom, I was part of a maverick team that successfully marketed the first consumer, Kodak DC20 digital camera - one that had no picture review screen! On that basis alone, my general belief is that anything is possible.

So, until the clever product development folks at Sony devise a fine-grain, textured e-book reader with the Seventies-style scratch and sniff aroma of leather and printers ink, if that belief means having to cross the consumer chasm (2), new e-book firmly in hand, then so be it.

(1): Amazon
(2): Geoffrey A. Moore: "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Consumers"

Labels: e-books, marketing, Sony Reader