Will Digital Books Stagnate?

[conan50]

Interesting article. I can relate to some of the things in it. If ebooks do stagnate I suspect it will be because of closed systems and Kindle being the dominant format. There will be little reason for Amazon to compete with themselves.

The pile of unread books we have on our bedside tables is often referred to as a graveyard of good intentions. The list of unread books on our Kindles is more of a black hole of fleeting intentions.

http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/w...pped-evolving/

[JSWolf]

Not stagnate, but they will eventually disintegrate.

[conan50]

This I thought particularly good in the article:

Many of these digital concerns would be rendered moot with more open digital-reading ecosystems. Without proprietary DRM, we could copy and back‑up our books with ease. Even if Amazon stopped supporting Kindle (as Sony did with LIBRIé, as Yahoo! did with Geocities, and as countless other huge corporations have with their seemingly invincible products and communities), we could be certain that our books and reading data would still be accessible. With a proper API (an application programming interface, which allows one authorised application to read and manipulate data in another), entrepreneurs outside of Amazon or Apple could step in and offer more beautiful, efficient, or innovative reading containers for our books, leaving the bigger companies to do what they do best: payments and infrastructure.

[pwalker8]

I don't believe that Amazon or any of the major ebook stores insist on DRM, that's up to the publisher (and author). The fundamental issue for a new "reading containers" is being able to easily buy and access the books you buy. It's pretty tough to get easier than Amazon or Apple for buying and loading books right now. I normally use Marvin to read, but to use Marvin, I have to download the book onto my computer, strip out the DRM, convert it to epub and then download it to my reading device (iPad for me). That is a lot more effort than the see book, read book that one has from the Kindle or iBook.

Frankly, the issue with ebooks isn't the proprietary systems, it's the percentage of people who actually like to read.

[Cinisajoy]

I know some Amazon books are DRM free.
Now as to stagnate: well some ebooks are stagnant.
Since this is the definition cease developing; become inactive or dull.
As to ebooks on the whole, I think they will continue to develop and evolve.

Nice topic though.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I don't believe that Amazon or any of the major ebook stores insist on DRM, that's up to the publisher (and author). The fundamental issue for a new "reading containers" is being able to easily buy and access the books you buy. It's pretty tough to get easier than Amazon or Apple for buying and loading books right now. I normally use Marvin to read, but to use Marvin, I have to download the book onto my computer, strip out the DRM, convert it to epub and then download it to my reading device (iPad for me). That is a lot more effort than the see book, read book that one has from the Kindle or iBook.

Frankly, the issue with ebooks isn't the proprietary systems, it's the percentage of people who actually like to read.

I know this is going to sound really strange coming from me: but I completely agree with you.

The vast, vast majority people buying ebooks are completely unaffected by (and mostly unaware of) DRM and Walled Gardens.

And "Beautiful, efficient and innovative" is for the niche and/or elite crowd. That's true of all books (whether physical or electronic). Everybody else is looking for the quickest/easiest way to get the words of the ebooks they bought in front of their eyes, so they can read them and move on to the next ebook. None of the major players are hampering those folks in the least ('cept maybe for B&N ).

[conan50]

Looking at it going in another direction, is there a serious danger that in time there will not be backwards compatibility with older file types? I saw this change from pdb to epub at B&N I think, at least they upgraded the files. But do we have any guarantee that Amazon or anyone else will upgrade older file types in the future?
That is one thing that always appeals about print books, unless physically damaged--they aren't going anywhere

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by conan50

Looking at it going in another direction, is there a serious danger that in time there will not be backwards compatibility with older file types? I saw this change from pdb to epub at B&N I think, at least they upgraded the files. But do we have any guarantee that Amazon or anyone else will upgrade older file types in the future?
That is one thing that always appeals about print books, unless physically damaged--they aren't going anywhere

Is there a serious danger that calibre will drop off the face of the planet?

...

There are several different tools available for converting between formats, I highly doubt that your ebooks of whatever format are going anywhere.

[GERGE]

Why are people still discussing this? Digital books will become the norm sooner or later. Like Wikipedia killing old 20+ volume encyclopedies, printed books will mostly vanish. Be realistic. Content is more important than the medium.

I believe they will only exist as works of typographic art after a certain point in our future. I already only buy them as works of typography.

[DiapDealer]

Besides ... print books stagnated (as a medium) a long, long time ago and no one really lamented that there was no more innovation on the horizon. I'll be ecstatic if the ebook medium were to "stagnate." That would mean that people were focused on content again--instead of being distracted by "containers."

[Cajun]

Originally Posted by GERGE

Why are people still discussing this? Digital books will become the norm sooner or later. Like Wikipedia killing old 20+ volume encyclopedies, printed books will mostly vanish. Be realistic. Content is more important than the medium.

I believe they will only exist as works of typographic art after a certain point in our future. I already only buy them as works of typography.

FYI: I read, consult and do technical reviews of technical books. When I want to read a technical book, I never buy the digital edition. I always buy the print edition. Why? There are studies that indicate on average people read faster with better comprehension when reading printed material. I am someone that reads faster on printed material.

I'm hoping technical books will continue to be printed as long as I need to read them.
; - )

[Cajun]

In my humble opinion, if eBooks stagnate, it might be due to the pricing structure. I have a difficult time paying 14.99 for an eBook when I can buy the hardback for $15.00.

Please understand, my opinion and preferences are just that mine, I respect others with a differing view.

[conan50]

I have come to the realization that for non-fiction especially, and I think this was mentioned in the article, adding notes in the margins and being able to quickly navigate back and forth through a print book are big advantages. And retention of what you are reading, as someone here mentioned, does seem noticeable to me and I think there is some debate about it now in schools as students are moving to Chromebooks and iPads.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...with-a-laptop/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cr...nk-of-reading/
One thing I've begun to think about is the amount of information on a page. A six inch screen allows for so little information to consider at one time that I have wondered if considering larger passage at a time might also be of benefit, perhaps a larger screen reader might prove more profitable.
Lately with ebooks I'm becoming a bigger fan of Android apps vs. e-ink ebook reading, after looking at the features in some Android reading apps, font and color and formatting features, e-ink devices seem almost crippled by comparison. Also the highlighting with color choice is an advantage. You get more control and options with Android reading apps. The problem is getting those highlights and notes backed up and saved properly with some apps and devices.
The .lit format did go extinct, so the idea of file types dying out is not unheard of
http://the-digital-reader.com/2011/0...-ebook-format/
I suspect Amazon will kill Mobi at some point. If a company owns a file format, they can kill it at will.
Yet I think Epub will have a long life as an open file type. Perhaps in a perfect world all ebooks would be drm-free plain text files that the reader could format to their own pleasure with options or templates within their e-reading software.

[Cinisajoy]

Quick note on p vs e.
Some books are better as paper.
Technical books, some craft books. Especially those with picture patterns.
Other books are great as ebooks.
I don't think either are going anywhere in our lifetime.
Cookbooks need a working table of contents to be really useful on an ereader.

[conan50]

This sort of confirms my growing suspicion about how much text is on a page affecting comprehension and quality of reading:

Wästlund followed up that study with one designed to investigate screen reading dynamics in more detail. He presented students with a variety of on-screen document formats. The most influential factor, he found, was whether they could see pages in their entirety. When they had to scroll, their performance suffered.

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/reading...-versus-paper/
That has been sticking in my mind as I've read from my Paperwhite--too little info on the screen, too much moving back and forth and just giving up searching for something that hit me from a few pages back. With a print book I glance back to the previous page or few pages, maneuverability of a print book cannot be matched by current ebook technology. If it ever gets to 3-D digital reading and virtual note-taking, then we will have a different animal. Can you imagine gesture flipping through pages of a virtual book you are reading through a "Google Glass" type technology? That would be awesome