What Electronic-Book Interfaces Looked Like 20 Years Ago

[RCR]

Voyager - I still have their "Laurie Anderson's Puppet Motel" cd. That was a weird, interactive and non-directional piece of work. Unfortunately it hasn't worked since about Windows 2000.

On the other hand I still use my Sony 505 which continues to chug along quite well.

[gmw]

One thing he doesn't list as a reason for failure, he notes as what is still missing:

Already in 1992 the main argument for ebooks was “extended functionality”, smart digital features that increase the reading experience. So where are all these new e-features?

This was one of the problems with products like those the blog author was involved in, they were trying to make stuff that was more/better/different than the original book. Had they started simpler and been ready to evolve they may have left themselves open to a larger market. The more modest and philanthropic venture of Project Gutenberg began back in 1971 and is still going. (That's not to agree that ebooks were invented there, as suggested on the site, but the simple solution offered there bears a close resemblance to what we are now buying: the book, not the whiz-bang.)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by gmw

One thing he doesn't list as a reason for failure, he notes as what is still missing:

This was one of the problems with products like those the blog author was involved in, they were trying to make stuff that was more/better/different than the original book. Had they started simpler and been ready to evolve they may have left themselves open to a larger market. The more modest and philanthropic venture of Project Gutenberg began back in 1971 and is still going. (That's not to agree that ebooks were invented there, as suggested on the site, but the simple solution offered there bears a close resemblance to what we are now buying: the book, not the whiz-bang.)

Yep.



.

Originally Posted by gmw

This was one of the problems with products like those the blog author was involved in, they were trying to make stuff that was more/better/different than the original book.

In a sense, I think they had to make ebooks "better" than print books. Portability was seriously lacking back then, even in terms of laptops. (Laptops were much larger, somewhat heavier, and incredibly expensive.) So it would have hard to sell an ebook as a straightforward book. Throw in some extra features though, and a few people would nibble. That was particularly true in education markets which were going ga-ga over multimedia back then.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

In a sense, I think they had to make ebooks "better" than print books. Portability was seriously lacking back then, even in terms of laptops. (Laptops were much larger, somewhat heavier, and incredibly expensive.) So it would have hard to sell an ebook as a straightforward book. Throw in some extra features though, and a few people would nibble. That was particularly true in education markets which were going ga-ga over multimedia back then.

Certainly there there problems - whatever approach they took - but by starting heavy and whiz-bang they compounded their problems right at the start (size, compatibility/portability, expense, taste etc.), never giving smaller, simpler and cheaper solutions a chance (and which could then evolve). It's not unexpected that companies would try what they did at that time, but their approach automatically limited both their supply and their market. Software development has learned a lot about the advantages of evolution in that time (in some places at least).

Originally Posted by gmw

Certainly there there problems - whatever approach they took - but by starting heavy and whiz-bang they compounded their problems right at the start (size, compatibility/portability, expense, taste etc.), never giving smaller, simpler and cheaper solutions a chance (and which could then evolve). It's not unexpected that companies would try what they did at that time, but their approach automatically limited both their supply and their market. Software development has learned a lot about the advantages of evolution in that time (in some places at least).

I definitely agree with what you're saying, but I'm very much uncertain if they could have followed a modern model back then and have had much success.

A few of your suggestions were certainly in the realm of possibility. Dedicated ereaders could have been created, and likely at the same price point. (Albeit, slightly bulkier and with different screen and battery technologies.) I'm fairly certain that manuscripts were digital back then, so the conversion process would have been trivial. So the smaller, simpler, cheaper philosophy was available.

On the other hand, I can't help thinking that it would have been incredibly risky. In order to reach your market back then, you'd have to box a bunch of floppies (or other physical media) and ship them to vendors since a fraction of computer users even had access to online services. That costs money. If it doesn't sell, that means losing lots of money.

[aagstn]

I get nostalgic sometimes for my old Sony Clie monochrome Palm OS PDA. I probably read 100 books on that thing.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by RCR

Voyager - I still have their "Laurie Anderson's Puppet Motel" cd. That was a weird, interactive and non-directional piece of work. Unfortunately it hasn't worked since about Windows 2000.

On the other hand I still use my Sony 505 which continues to chug along quite well.

Yep, and I still have both the Maus and "Hard Days Night" CD's that were mentioned in the article. I still keep an old Mac OS9 computer alive just for Maus (even the new Metamaus still has it's electronic copy in a proprietary format. I keep hoping that someday I'll stumble across a Hypercard emulator that lets me extract the images from my Voyager CD).