December 09, 2008
Turning the Page of Publishing: Launching E-Books into the Mainstream
This Op-Ed: How to Publish Without Perishing from New York Times contributor James Gleick and the army of Sony Reader ambassadors in Grand Central Station that greet me on my way to work every morning have me thinking a lot about E-Books lately.
The Amazon Kindle turned a year old in November and was proclaimed by Oprah as her favorite gadget of this year. Seemingly, Oprah does not read Joe's blog or she would have caught the Kindle bug back in June. We haven't seen a revision to the Kindle yet, but it looks like a new model might be on its way out in Q1 2009.
Sony recently updated its reader line to include the new PRS-700 (Not as cool a name as the Kindle). Sony is taking a much more aggressive approach to marketing this new model than in the past. With new features like an E-Ink (OLED) touch screen display that lets you turn pages with your finger (hope it doesn't smudge badly) and built in text annotation and text highlighting, the new model is much more interactive than the previous model.
While there are those that will gripe about features missing on either device, some still do not buy into the notion that E-books will catch on. These may be the same people that thought digital photography would never replace film, or that digital music would never replace CDs. If history is any lesson, it is just a matter of time before the combination of the right device, the right services and the right price point are set for mainstream adoption of E-books. Considering the recent claims that Amazon has sold out of the Kindle for the 2008 holiday shopping season, the time might be sooner than many people think.
Let's discuss a few points that could truly help propel E-books into the mainstream.
Market
The education market could propel sales of E-book readers if implemented properly. A major selling point of these E-book devices is that you can store multiple books on one device, but how often are you reading two paperback novels at once? How heavy is that new [insert favorite pickup-at-the-airport-book here]? The last time I can remember carrying a whole lot of heavy books was in school. You have to love watching those little 10-year-olds running to school with backpacks almost larger than them.
Giving students devices that allow them to store of all their school reading materials will also cut down on school inventory warehousing of old books. The device should allow highlighting, bookmarking and taking notes. These devices should be color and have multimedia capabilities. Think about how enhanced teaching history, physics or chemistry could be if videos and interactive slideshows could be part of the reading material.
Service
Amazon has it right with the ease of use when purchasing a title for the Kindle. The experience is quick and seamless. There are a few issues with how E-books are sold though, as titles are only slightly cheaper than their hardcover or paperback equivalents, and because the device is somewhat expensive you are not about to loan out your Kindle or Sony Reader to a friend when you are done reading.
I'd like to see an E-book device with a "library card" Netflix-like subscription service. Digital music subscription services got it wrong, as users will want to own their music and listen to it over and over again. While the subscription model didn't work well for Napster or Rhapsode, it may work for E-books, as it is less often that a user will go back and re-read a book, so they won't mind if the content expires after reading. By creating an E-book rental service with a set number of downloads per month at a fixed cost, prospective buyers will be more able to justify the cost of the device.
Format
There are over a dozen different E-book formats. From plain text and HTML files to PDF, Mobipocket, and the AZW format, each reader device will only read a few different formats. With a regular book all I need to read it is my eyes and some light. If I buy a CD or DVD I can be pretty certain that it will play in any CD or DVD players. E-book device manufactures should all agree on one format, preferably a digital rights managed PDF (very simple to create a PDF, and the means for interactivity are already built into the format). Like the VHS/Betamax wars or the recent HDDVD vs. BlueRay format dispute a single standard will eventually be adopted. This is a precursor to widespread adoption of E-books.
What it mainly comes down to is that the price points for the Sony Reader and the Kindle are still too hefty for the general public. The iPod didn't really cash in or gain prominence as the "must have" item until Apple introduced the Mini, the Nano and the Shuffle as lower-cost models. Even before the current economic climate, $360+ is a steep price to pay for a grayscale device that is primarily used for reading casual books. Bringing the price down to $150 with a subscription "library card" service (DRM protected of course) and start offering them to students with steep discounts, and then maybe we'll see the E-book market grow.
Building in the multimedia, interactive and Internet features into a E-book device teeters very close to a tablet PC, but at the current price point, you would almost have to think twice before buying an E-book device when tablet PCs or Netbooks offer more features in a package only slightly bigger. However if you are ready to take the plunge and buy an E-book reader, you should first check out this site to compare models. If you are into the classics and you just bought an E-book, then chances are you will be a little strapped for cash in filling up the reader device. Make sure to check out Project Gutenberg for free downloads of most classic books now in public domain.
I keep thinking of that scene in the movie Minority Report when Tom Cruise is running from the pre-crime unit trying to go into hiding. He jumps onto a subway train and sits down in front of a man reading a newspaper that has moving headlines and a real-time stock ticker. All of a sudden the newspaper flashes and breaking news of the fugitive on the loose is displayed. This is the future and as the technology to produce paper-thin flexible OLED displays expands, we are very close to seeing this as more than just science fiction.
Posted at 11:13 am by Ivan Mironchuk
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Good job, Ivan. a few thoughts.
While I still love the Kindle, I miss reading in semi-dry environments (by the pool, on the treadmill), so I haven't gotten completely away from paper. However, I'm really digging the fact that I'm actually reading MORE books this year than I have in previous years.
I actually happen to like reading a few books at one time, although I agree one is usually fiction and the others are nonfiction (business, technology, science, history, etc). I love being able to board a plane as I did this morning and have just the one device with me. The Kindle also supports music files as well but I still bring that ipod along.
With regard to kids lugging books, I hated that as a kid and I don't like it that my kids will have to as well. However, K-5 books are 4-color and highly graphical in nature. The E*Ink technology is black & white since it is based on gel electrophoresis as the technology. Hence it is not a great end user experience for the kids. The technology may change and they may come up with a 4-color option but gel electrophoresis will not support it as far as I am aware.
Where I think e-reader technology might shine is in middle through high school education, since much of the literary content can be black&white. History, math, science and language study all have different content types that are interactive, graphic in nature, and subject to continued testing -- I actually think the learning opportunities will continue to expand into more online study (and less heavy-book core texts in print) with these domains.
One concern we'll have to remember -- the e-books cost money. The price will go down as they go mainstream, but we've got to be careful that if they are embraced in secondary school education, we have to make sure we're not creating a new 'digital divide' where people that can't afford these devices end up having to consume content the old-fashioned way.
Thanks for the comment! The VitalBook format is great technology, but it is a proprietary platform and only works on desktop computers, not E-book devices. In my post I was hoping to dscuss developments that would further the adoption of E-book reading devices and an open E-book standard format that would work across devices.