E-books will take over print in 5 years, predicts Sony

London, June 3 (ANI): Sony has predicted that e-books will completely take over the print media in another five years.

"Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong - it's within five," The Telegraph quoted Steve Haber, president of Sony's digital reading business division, as saying.

Seemingly, the patterns in the digitisation of music and photography are now being repeated in the books market.

Haber said, "I have multiple meetings with publishers and tell them paradigm shifts happen. You can say fortunately or unfortunately you haven't had a paradigm shift in, what, hundreds of years.

"We in the consumer electronics area have a paradigm shift every year or two."

The Sony Reader range consists of two models in Europe - the Sony Reader Touch and the Sony Reader Pocket, and a third model - the Sony Reader Daily Edition, which is larger and offers wireless connectivity.

Haber believes that people will apply a similar approach to books, as they did with the camera - using their cellphones to take pictures instead of carrying a separate SLR.

"You have your multifunction devices - like a tablet - that are available for reading and then you'll have devices that are immersive. People will choose different devices for different experiences," he added. (ANI)