As for shipping, I know it's expensive, but it's the cheapest that I can get. I have tried US Postal Service, DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc...
USPS Charges me the following costs:
Domestic Priority Mail: $12.00
International Priority Mail: $50.34 (I have reduced this from $59.00 by using a different sized box, was using medium sized boxes)
Sometimes there is a small difference in shipping charges which I have found depends on destination, but about 90% of the international locations I have shipped manuals to are over the $50.00 price point.
You can go to www.usps.com and check on pricing for international flat rate priority mail costs.
Even their small sized box which I would use for the thumb drives I am looking at is $25.00. Of course the thumb drives are $35 a drive plus about $10.00 in shipping to get to me. Then the licensing cost of the software to actually create the content as so it can't easily be copied, printed, distributed across the internet is another story... I am looking at options still but the technology for decent DRM protection on protected media isn't geared towards the small time person and more geared towards the big time publisher with larger budgets, higher runs to absorb the costs.
On top of that, I know I am working in the shop on my NSR and Aprilia and have tried to use my ipad to view my manual while working. I have gone back to the paper manual as it's much easier to deal with. And trust me, its not like I am a neophyte when it comes to technology and mobile devices. My day job is all around mobile devices and getting data down to the hand held devices. Been working in software development for 23 years now and working specifically with mobile device software development for 14 of those years. If I can use technology in my day to day world and make my life easier, I am all for it, the service manual just hasn't done it for me yet
But I will continue to look for reasonable solutions to this dilemma to offer an options.