The Sony E-Reader

Ebooks will be outselling print books in five years, says the man behind one of the most popular ebook reading devices in the world, the Sony E-Reader.

Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division, says in this report from the Telegraph: “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.”

Haber tells the paper he’s seeing similar patterns to the digitization of music and photography and, as the Telegraph puts it, “believes that the ebook market has now passed the point of no return.”

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