ITWeek article on E-books

[Anchoku]

Mark Chillingworth wrote this article about e-books for ITWeek.

Originally Posted by ITWeek

MP3 players arrived on the music scene back in 1997, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the now ubiquitous iPod from Apple that MP3 began to take over from the CD. Likewise, e-books and e-book readers have been under discussion for some time, but in the last 12 months the arrival of new screen technology and attractive devices could do for books what the iPod has done for music.

For the information industry, the question is whether e-books will capture the attention of users in the way the internet has done over the past decade and whether information providers, professionals and departments should be planning to support another new format.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

the immediacy of print and the snatched few paragraphs or a quick revision of basic facts are all lost in the digital world. Even so, anyone who uses this device for pleasure rather than work will quickly become immersed in the story rather than the technology.

This is a point that I constantly try to make with potential e-book readers, and I wish the article had said a bit more on that. Still, this article was more of an Iliad review than a declaration about e-books, wasn't it?

For those concerned with next-generation users, this device could herald as big a change as the internet did. The next generation of readers place little value on tactile objects – just like modern music consumers have no interest in record and CD sleeves. They just want the content, and whether it comes from a blog or MySpace site matters little. MP3 music adoption has already reached this stage; e-book readers like the iLiad could do the same for the written word.

Another point I make with older readers who insist e-books will never take off: "It's the content, stupid." Here, Chillingworth seems to say that the e-book will be as big as the MP3 player, and as big as the internet... which I would argue is a lot bigger than the MP3 player!

But if you can imagine people carrying tons of knowledge, not just entertainment, in an e-book reader... then I can see e-books becoming much bigger than the entertainment-centric MP3 player, and rivalling the internet...

[Anchoku]

There are two problems with e-books as I see it. First, they need far more content available on a standardized, scalable format so any e-reader can display it and anyone can get what they want to read. Second, e-readers need to come down in price.

Paper media is inexpensive, remarkably durable, and I need no special software, hardware, or license key to read. A paper book is always ready to be read regardless of size, format, or age. Even hundred year-old books pulled from the bottom of a stack in storage are instant-on and ready to go. Until the e-book industry can better compete with that, it will have a tough time garnering much of a share of the industry. PCs and e-books do much better with dynamic content such as the internet than static content such as a novel.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by Anchoku

... Paper media is inexpensive, remarkably durable....

True on the first and mostly false on the second. The quality of most of the paper books have been printed on in my lifetime has dropped. Once books were prized, today they are produced to be disposed of. Maybe library and textbooks are printed on quality paper with good inks but most of the books I see for sale at Boarders are either clay coated stock or cheap wood pulp paper that will yellow and age quickly.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Anchoku

PCs and e-books do much better with dynamic content such as the internet than static content such as a novel.

True enough. However, one advantage of the PC or e-book reader is its ability to potentially carry thousands of books in a compact package. Another advantage is its ability to tailor the delivery to the individual, for instance, with varying font sizes or background colors. High storage capacity and customization... strong plusses, which are apparently good enough for MP3 players to discount the lower sound quality of their reproductions.

The final delivery reader can still stand perfection... pricing, formats, bookmarking, searching, storage, backlighting, waterproofing (hey, a lot of people apparently still read in the tub! I didn't even know that many people took baths instead of showering!). None of that is insurmountable. It's only a matter of time before Panasonic puts out a ToughReader, Apple creates an iReader, or something like that comes out of left field somewhere, and becomes successful. When that happens, the last of the content holdouts will join the e-book market.