When will e-book readers stop being the future?
January 22, 2010 by Nick Clayton · 10 Comments
The Amazon Kindle
This year could finally be the one where e-readers start to have a serious impact on printed books, magazines and newspapers. Although it could be a little longer than that before they become as ubiquitous as the iPod.
The biggest challenge the growing number of manufacturers have is explaining just what an e-reader is. The answer’s not as obvious as you might think and there are two sides to the story.
On the one hand there’s the software that allows users to read e-books. This is mainly to do with copyright. For instance, when Amazon sells an e-book it’s encrypted to stop people making unlimited copies of the latest Dan Brown or whatever.
Instead, buyers have to use the program built into the most successful e-book reader, Amazon’s Kindle. Alternatively there are e-reader programs which can be used with a variety of laptops and mobile phones.
So you can read your Harry Potter on an iPhone. And, no doubt, it’ll look even better on Apple’s much-heralded tablet, ‘iPad’ or whatever it’s called, when it launches on 27 January.
In which case, why should anybody bother to buy an e-book reader such as the Kindle? It’s just another piece of technology to howk round with you.
There’s just one component in an e-reader that makes it desirable, the screen. This uses variations on a technology called “e-ink” which creates a reflective display which closely resembles paper. It’s not cheap.
In fact for the same price as an e-reader which can only display text and graphics in black and white you can buy an all-singing, all-dancing smartphone, handheld games console or netbook computer. Unlike an e-reader, any of those will let you play games, watch videos, surf the web and read text. I told you it was a hard sell for the e-book reader manufacturers.
But once you’ve seen an e-ink screen you’ll understand. It is just like “real” paper so you can read it in bright sunlight and it won’t cause eyestrain from prolonged use.
E-ink beats conventional colour screens which cause discomfort because they rely on light shining through layers of coloured material. The effect is similar to staring into a torch. And it’s constantly flickering.
I first saw a prototype e-ink device almost a decade ago and I’ve desired one ever since. The thought of being able to carry round my whole library or to download any newspaper, book or magazine to read anywhere is a dream come true. But I’m not ready to buy one yet and in some ways I hope I never will be.
At the moment the price is too high for a gadget which is far from perfect. For instance, screens still turn black as you change page, although the time is getting shorter it’s a pain if you’re skimming. An increasing number use touch screens which look cool, but attract finger prints and tend to be overly shiny which makes them harder to read. That rather defeats the object of an e-reader.
The key problem though is the price of e-books which generally cost more than their physical equivalents. It’s not just because the British government insists on levying VAT on them but because the booksellers and publishers are charging more. I object to that.
The differential can’t last. At the moment the people who buy expensive e-readers have deep enough pockets to pay for over-priced e-books. As the price of e-readers falls so will the willingness of consumers to pay for material to read on them.
It’s impossible to see how they won’t follow the same trajectory as MP3 players. The Apple iTune shop might be a huge success, but the vast majority of music on all the world’s iPods is downloaded free from the internet, copied from friends or ripped from CDs. Words are even harder to copy protect than tunes.
As a reader, the opportunity to carry round just about anything that’s even been written, at next to no cost, is a dream come true. As somebody who tries to make a living as a writer, it’s a nightmare.
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As an owner of an Sony e-book reader I am supprised that you did not mention one of the most interesting functions the ability to increase the font size. In an increasing ageing population, (Myself included), the ability to change the font of the book being read at the touch of a button is invaluable. There is also a huge free library of books availiable from many sources on the web which do not infringe copyright.
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I see e-book tablets being rapidly overtaken by multimedia tablet devices.
I see e-books holding on if they can take full advatage of the alternate screen technology: I want scrolls; flexible screens that roll away neatly round a pen. This should be much easier for an e-book screen than a competing multimedia tablet PC.
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Actually having an e-book reader doesn’t denote deep pockets, and I’be been reading e-books for years on my Palm Pilot an dnow my Sony
Thank goodness for Project Gutenberg and Baen Books, amongst others
As an electronic newspaper, you think you would format yourself for download so that we could download your words of wisdom to our readers, and enjoy them on the train
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I never thought I could give up the feel and texture of a physical book for an ebook but a few years ago that changed. I have always had smart-phones and, whilst bored one day, downloaded an ebook reader to kill some time. At first my thoughts were to only use ebooks to kill time when I was out without a book but it soon became much more. The advantages of ebooks became very clear, very quickly:
*You can carry hundreds of books around with you without breaking your back
*You can read in poor light as you have a backlit screen
*I would never be without a book because I am never without my smart-phone
*I can now make use of the small bits of wasted time like waiting for a lift
These reasons made me an avid ebook reader, especially given that there were so many new books available. Some books were actually available as ebooks while still in hardback! I even had a choice of software to read my ebooks, for me it seemed like the ebook reader software on mobile phones was the future and the future was now! I tols everyone and anyone that I could about the virtues of the ebook on your current mobile device.
Unfortunately this love affair inevitably came to a crushing end. The ebook sites I used to buy and download my books was American, for no other reason than there in no (that I can find) UK based ebook seller with a decent range of titles. The ebook sites have now made their content geographically restricted, meaning that unless you have a USA/ Canada credit card you can not unlock nearly all of the new releases. This has brought an untimely end to my time with ebooks, I am not about to go out and buy a dedicated ebook reader, one of the advantages that I loved was that I did not need to carry anything extra! This has also meant that I am unable to go back to physical books as I resent the extra weight (especially with hardbacks)and the inability to read in poor light. So until the UK publishers get their act together and start producing/ allowing sales of their books as ebooks I will be at a loss and so will their profits.
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It will be interesting to see if Apple’s new Tablet (probably to be announced Wednesday) becomes the new ‘must have’ and becomes the mass market (compared with Kindle etc.) e-Reader.
As with all things Apple there are many rumours. One quite strong one is that the company is targeting magazine publishers, the idea being that Apple might do for glossies what its iTunes Store did for music.
Another (rumoured) issue is UK availability. Even if announced this week, the hardware isn’t expected until March – but that might only be in the US. It’s down to deals with carriers (as well as publishers).
IF there there is a WiFi only version that may arrive here sooner.
Meanwhile there are plenty of books available for iPhones/iPod Touches in app form – many free.
http://applebicycle.info/2010/01/25/treasure-island
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I don’t get the hype surrounding the Apple Tablet for the purpose of reading e-books. It doesn’t use e-ink technology, need charged far more often and weighs nearly 3 times as much as the standard e-book readers available. It simply doesn’t strike me as something that will take over the e-book market.
Surely the e-book market will ultimately pull in a new market for technology i.e. people that actually read books(the paper kind). Look around on the train or bus at the people with ipods, iphones, smartphones, DS’s and so on they aren’t reading books they are playing games on these gadgets. Meanwhile there are those reading books, these are definitely separate markets and i think once e-book readers hit the 50-80 pound range along with cheaper e-books in the shops people may start to put down their paperbacks for the e-book readers instead.
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The Onionist tree forest press in Scotland must be quaking in their jackboots at the appearance of the Caley Merc. Just what Scotland needs. Don’t let us down and don’t ever bottle it?
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Blood, sweat and tears, hours, weeks and years of devoted, lonely work by a writer and you can’t carry a paperback and immerse yourself in ONE book for a little while?
I don’t envy you, iSheep.
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I recently purchased a Sony Touch E Reader and as book I find it very good but expensive.
I would like to have seen more facilities especially a diary and I am surprised at the price of e books, surely with environmental issues the government should drop the Vat. In order for e books to become a success the price will have to be cheaper than buying a paper copy.
Why are e books more expensive than the paper version ?
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I don’t think there really is a real justification for e-books being more expensive. Partly it’s because publishers feel that the sort of people who’ve paid £150 plus for an e-reader will be the sort of people who’ll be willing to pay a premium for something to read on it. Publishers also want to protect their current business model. By keeping prices high it stops or delays the market from reaching critical mass. If e-readers become mass market commodities the price of material to read on them will fall and piracy will rise.
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