Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
I think that is a terrible idea. That is the #1 worst type of ebook bloat IMHO.
I suppose for someone who only reads one or two books, grossly obese books wouldn't be a problem.
I give thanks to Bezos every day that Amazon disagrees with you, and aggressively strips down image sizes to match the resolution of target devices.
(We have had this discussion before, I think.)
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Stripping down image sizes is the wrong approach for the very same reason that DRM is wrong: it causes you to never be free of the company you buy from, because you will need to redownload each and every book you have, any time you upgrade or switch your device, either to get the correct image size, or to get the book to work.
The general population doesn't read a lot.
According to this data from 2013, the average American reads 5 books a year. Let's be generous, and make it 12 books a year, assuming that people reading only 5 books a year won't buy an e-reader. In 50 years, these people will read 600 books.
What does it matter if a book is 10MB in size because of images? The library will take up around 6GB. So what? A SINGLE 5 minute song in FLAC format takes up around 25MB, an album being 350MB+, easily. Installing a game on a computer nowadays takes op 30-60GB. The average computer nowadays has 500GB+ of storage space (if you have a very cheap off-the shelf desktop), and every phone that is not ultra-budget has 16-32GB on board, and/or an SD-card slot.
It would be very easy for Amazon to stick 16GB+ into an e-ink Kindle. Kobo's can actually be upgraded by cloning the internal SD-card to a larger one and extending the partitions. So, there is no reason to sell an e-reader with less than 16GB of storage space, which would easily accommodate 1000-1500 of my very large books, which is plenty for any but the very heaviest readers; the device stores up to 2,5 times the number of books read by a normal reader. (And this is assuming that every book contains huge covers, maps, and illustrations, which will not be the case.)
What is more, you will need to use the device for 50 years, after filling it up, to be able to read all those books.
Thus, the only reason making the size of an e-book an issue is because manufacturers put only 2-4GB in an e-reader, and use very slow USB controllers. Why can't my Kindle transfer ebooks at a rate of 25MB+ a second (even over USB2)? My 16GB USB-stick, costing $10 at a grocery store can. The only reason is that Amazon, and other manufacturers have something to advertise with: "Transfers ebooks 30% faster!", "Now with 4GB instead of 2GB!" and so on.