This is happening already at an increasing pace. Soon, an electronic text on a floppy will be almost as acceptable as a printed one to over 200 million people around the world who have ready access to a personal computer in their homes and at work. That demographic category includes the entire target readership for many publications. Children, frequently more comfortable with computers than their parents, might come to regard electronic media as more natural than print. Already, a generation has largely abandoned newspapers.
Reference books represent an example of such changing attitudes.
For generations, encyclopedia sets have been marketed with strong visual imagery of their physical bulk, emphasizing that the volumes constitute a large and valuable source of information.