In amidst the (continuing) Amazon-Devil-Daunt discussion, there has been talk of bundling, as if the desire of consumers to buy two versions of each book they purchase had somehow been proven as fact.

In a perfect world the idea of buying one edition, and having access to all formats on-demand looks attractive. But a brief discussion of 'bundling' on Twitter left me with the impression that it meant different things to different parts of the trade (for the booksellers it is a chance to get punters back into shops, even if they secretly want the e-book; for the publisher it is an opportunity to maintain the value of the 'package'). Either way, no-one had any evidence, except anecdotes, that it was something the consumer wanted. If bundling worked, said one, why wasn't Amazon doing it, or pushing for it?

One reason could be that for those who have a choice, books are becoming polarised - some are desired only digitally, others remain attractive as print, but rarely are both required (at least not at the same time). Back in 2010 Evan Schnittman wrote on his (retired) Black Plastic Glasses blog, that people who read digitally had no interest in print books. "They don’t go into stores and are not very likely to shop in online environments that feature ebooks and print books." Print is dead to them.

Of course Daunt is betting on the exact opposite happening, and Schnittman might have been talking about early adopters of e, rather than those readers who are more flexible about how they read. Schnittman's view has shifted slightly since 2010 anyway, unveiling the concept of the enhanced hardback at last year's FutureBook conference, with the memorable phrase: "Print must thrive for publishing to survive. Print must survive for publishing to thrive." He was talking about a potential market for those customers who would be prepared to buy a premium hardback and then get the download for convenience: a niche of hardcore book buyers that would surely appeal to Daunt.

But I'm not yet seeing this as the magic bullet the bugle blowers might have us believe it to be.

As of now, the bundle concept looks, at best, untested, at worse, a fallacy. There would be, of course, a delicious irony about any kind of Waterstones' bundle. At least with 3-for-2, readers got three books for the price of 2, with a bundle, they'll get one text for the price of two.