A Fourth issue for thoughtful debate - what's holding back electronic books?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by lenseman

I am thinking Amazon might not be the real threat but rather Google in the long term. With their acquisition of that tablet/ereader company recently they seem to be getting ready to push out their own device. I think we will be seeing a lot more 'free' offers from their online bookstore to help push its adoption.

I really don't think that Google will be much of a threat to Amazon. I think that Google is very good at what they do...but what they do is write software, most of which exists in the cloud, give the software away, and manage to make money through advertising.

I don't think that this model will lend itself to books very easily, and I don't see that Google would be any better than amazon at making deals with publishers and selling through their website.

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

ebook market share as per AAP stats:

August 2007: .58%
August 2008: 1.19%
August 2009: 3.31%
August 2010: 9.03%

What's holding back electronic books from taking a larger share of the market?

Nothing?

This is actually a huge leap for a brand new technology - at this rate it will be about 25% for 2011 and about 75% for 2012. Glad I don't own shares in a book printing company!

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by CazMar

This is actually a huge leap for a brand new technology - at this rate it will be about 25% for 2011 and about 75% for 2012. Glad I don't own shares in a book printing company!

And they'll have 225% of the market in 2013!

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by CazMar

This is actually a huge leap for a brand new technology - at this rate it will be about 25% for 2011 and about 75% for 2012. Glad I don't own shares in a book printing company!

well I wouldn't measure (er, predict) future growth by past performance. For now it has some momentum.

[lenseman]

Another point I forgot to mention is the difference between recreational reading over mandatory reading.

Right now e-readers are mostly marketed as an optional piece of hardware for people that read for recreation. When schools start making textbooks e-reader exclusive we will eventually have generations that have gotten most if not all of their reading done via some sort of electronic screen (monitor or smart phone for their social life and an e-reader for their studies). At that point e-reading will be the norm and paperbacks will seem like a novelty item.

[Bro Pete]

I agree with David_E and Hal2814. The problem is not DRM but format. I do not like being told where I must buy my books because of the brand ereader I own. Would you like being told where you must buy your music because of the brand of player you owned? (Apple does but I refuse to purchase anything form them for that very reason.) When formats are equal the competition is focused on content, marketing, and availabllity, not security measures.

It is hard for me to understand the strong animosity toward DRM. An author of an ebook deserves the same copyright protection as any other created work. Music artists admit that record sales are no longer their primary income but concert tickets bring in the bulk of their money. Unrestricted copying discourages the distribution of their work in permanent format. So I would say that the current multiple format and format specific DRM protection are what holds back ebooks. Let me read an ebook from any source but restrict me from copying the file and I will be happy. It does keep me from lending out books to friends, but I have to admit that of the books I've lent out, I get back about 2/3 of them.

As far as DRM being costly...really? The rights management of a treebook includes the paper, binding, distribution and warehouse costs....

[Fayth]

Originally Posted by Bro Pete

I agree with David_E and Hal2814. The problem is not DRM but format. I do not like being told where I must buy my books because of the brand ereader I own. Would you like being told where you must buy your music because of the brand of player you owned? (Apple does but I refuse to purchase anything form them for that very reason.) When formats are equal the competition is focused on content, marketing, and availabllity, not security measures.

It is hard for me to understand the strong animosity toward DRM. An author of an ebook deserves the same copyright protection as any other created work. Music artists admit that record sales are no longer their primary income but concert tickets bring in the bulk of their money. Unrestricted copying discourages the distribution of their work in permanent format. So I would say that the current multiple format and format specific DRM protection are what holds back ebooks. Let me read an ebook from any source but restrict me from copying the file and I will be happy. It does keep me from lending out books to friends, but I have to admit that of the books I've lent out, I get back about 2/3 of them.

As far as DRM being costly...really? The rights management of a treebook includes the paper, binding, distribution and warehouse costs....

DRM in any form, for any product, is useless. The only thing it does is hamper paying customers and encourage piracy. In this case it also drives prices up because they have to pay for every ADE ebook sold. I dream of a world where all publisher's realize this, and DRM is gone, but I doubt it'll happen in my lifetime.

[JSWolf]

What is holding back eBooks is the different formats, the DRM, & the Agency 5.

[snipenekkid]

biggest issue I see if the failure of any ebook device brand to present a very clear direction for the growth of the platform as more than a "game console for readers". Really it's all they are and until late last year they were danged expensive devices without a solid direction to enhance reading beyond an interesting display tech that introduced a problem (reading in low or no light) while doing a great job solving the issue of no need for lighted displays for normal reading conditions.

And by lack of direction I am talking about building a platform that brings them into practical use for people as both entertainment (not all need be more than just for reading) as well as for people who want to move to lighten the weight of their physical book load and at the same time be able to organize any research for which their books are being used.

Really to my thinking it's the failure to provide the real ability to do use your reader as something more.

Also the issue of durability. But that will is just an engineering problem which has already been addressed with the variety of flexible displays. Yeah, for most of the EPD screens the actual display layer is already a flexible layer but it's the move to truly flexible and durable displays which, along with color (again just time) are holding back the device and with that ebooks in general.

When parents begin using these devices at work they will then see the value to their kids and their learning, but only when someone can show how the device can be used as a learning tool that provides more than already exists with a pad, pencil and a few physical books. Reducing the weight is fine but alone it is not that big an incentive.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by Bro Pete

It is hard for me to understand the strong animosity toward DRM. An author of an ebook deserves the same copyright protection as any other created work.

I don't disagree with the things you say but I did want to point out how DRM provides a level of "protection" that is unexampled in the history of Content Author vs. Consumer. With DRM, Content Author's have eclipsed all previous precedents concerning their rights and they may now control access to content on a per view basis! And that is most certainly new in the world of copyright rights.

And then the Content Authors can just turn around and pretend like this is the level of protection that they should have had all along but the world was unable to provide them with until the advent of watchdog hardware and software mechanisms. *shrug*

It is what it is and this is the path they have chosen. We will have to see how many feet the consumer has left when everything has shaken down.

We live in interesting times, no doubt (even though nothing is new and all is gut-wrenchingly cyclic like the teacher said).

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

well I wouldn't measure future growth by past performance. For now it has some momentum.

I can imagine the makers of vinyl disks must have been congratulating themselves in the same way in the 1980's when CD's first came on the market, and there were only a handful of actual recordings available. By the mid 2000's they had sold billions. Then in 2001 came the IPod....

I still stick by my original statement about the paper book publishing industry - they should be afraid, very afraid.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by CazMar

I can imagine the makers of vinyl disks must have been congratulating themselves in the same way in the 1980's when CD's first came on the market, and there were only a handful of actual recordings available. By the mid 2000's they had sold billions. Then in 2001 came the IPod....

And by 2011, CDs only accounted for 65% of the market.

I still stick by my original statement about the paper book publishing industry - they should be afraid, very afraid.

There is no paper book publishing industry. There is just a publishing industry, and they publish e-books and paper books. I don't think that they should be afraid, as they seem to be handling e-books about as well as can be expected.

I think that printers should be afraid. And maybe B&M bookstores.

[OtterBooks]

Would you like being told where you must buy your music because of the brand of player you owned?

So long as they told me before purchasing their product, sure; especially if I had numerous and affordable options for listening to that music that didn't require a player at all. But if it comes to pass that there are as many different brands of ereaders as there are music players, my guess is that limitations will not be the same as they are now.

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

There is no paper book publishing industry. There is just a publishing industry, and they publish e-books and paper books. I don't think that they should be afraid, as they seem to be handling e-books about as well as can be expected.

I think that printers should be afraid. And maybe B&M bookstores.

The actual publishers will just sell books whether they are electronic or paper, yes you are right, it's the printers that will feel the pinch. Many years ago we virtually lost our printing industry in Australia - I still know printers who had to retire early or retrain into other careers. But I guess these changes are part of progress and will just happen. And a few more trees left standing won't do the world any harm!

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by CazMar

The actual publishers will just sell books whether they are electronic or paper, yes you are right, it's the printers that will feel the pinch. Many years ago we virtually lost our printing industry in Australia - I still know printers who had to retire early or retrain into other careers. But I guess these changes are part of progress and will just happen. And a few more trees left standing won't do the world any harm!

A journal that my school used to put out was typeset by hand (i.e., he set the *individual letters up* in a frame) into the 90's well after everyone else was using computers. The people at the university in charge of the journal didn't want to fire the guy who did the printing (he was in his 70's), so they kept having it be manually typeset until the guy retired.