The future of e-readers

[Caltsar]

I liked the mp3 player point made previously... though the calculator one works too (but is a generation earlier).

I remember buying my first MP3 player... it wasn't too bad... 64MB of storage, fairly small... but I also came a few years after the first ones were arriving. It was also almost $200.

Now, while the multifunction iPod touch seems to be one of the best selling mp3 players, and smartphones are eating into the single function dedicated player market pretty well, there's still a healthy market for those little players with 2GB of storage... and they often can be found for under $10.

I personally can't wait until I can buy an ebook reader with a simple e-ink display (maybe even color e-ink!), some internal storage (a gig is enough), and a nice light but decent build quality for the price of a hardback book. There's no reason it can't happen and there's no reason they can't coexist with the tablets and multifunction readers... even if the market for them never takes off like tablets probably will.

[MartinC]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

And this explains why they have been trying (in vain) to become little computers and will fail. If they had been smart, they would have done what I suggested above. Greed has been their downfall. I doubt that they will remain even as bookends, though, because -- unlike calculators and in contrast to what RogueLibrarian says, they do NOT do even their most elemental tasks well.

Um... the prediction I was making was there will be one on every desk, alongside the calculator. Calculators have managed to survive and they still look much like the Sinclair original (showing my age again here). Plenty of people still use them. If somebody asked "What's the point of a calculator?" people would wonder what he was going on about.

[cathie]

Sorry mdmorrissey, I'll just agree to disagree.
I have just recently became the owner of a K3, and one of the things that I LOVE about it is the Wi-fi, 3G aspect of it.
Not everyone wants a multipurpose gadget. I have no interest in having a camera on my phone. I think that there will be a market for e-readers for quite some time.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

I predict they will be replaced very soon by tablets or netbooks with improved displays, portability, and battery life -- which are the only (current) advantages of e-readers.

This is kind of a weird post - as soon as tablets get a display as good as an e-reader, battery life as good as an e-reader, and are as portable as an e-reader, they will replace e-readers?

I can't say that I disagree with this particularly, although I'm skeptical that tablets will be able to do this, since the very attribute of e-ink readers that makes them so readable and gives them such good battery life (the e-ink screen) would, if added to a tablet, make the tablet unable to do the other things tablets do well... like show videos or surf the internet fluently.

There's a cost issue, too, although I think that if there were a device that was as good of a reader as my Kindle, and as good of a tablet as an iPad, many people would pay $500 for this.

But, as others have suggested, I think that what we'll eventually see are improved e-ink tablets at something like $60. But I don't think we'll see this for a few tablet generations, since I think that there's still a decent amount of room for improvement with e-ink.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

My prediction is based quite simply on the failure of e-readers to do what any lap/net/book/tablet can do, which is make everything on the net readable.

This may be because not everyone agrees with you that an ebook reader's purpose is to "make everything on the net readable"; some of us just want to read books, and find our readers to be excellent for that.

They should have limited themselves to producing simple, cheap devices that would allow you to transfer a few gigs of text from the computer screen and take it to bed (and elsewhere) with you. They do NOT do that now...

Excuse me? That's exactly what my ebook reader does: I fill it up with ebooks and take it to bed (and elsewhere) with me. They most certainly DO do that now. I'm not joking when I say I bought my PRS-505 to read Project Gutenberg in bed. I was doing that this evening (well, sprawled across the bed rather than technically in bed, but close enough) as a matter of fact.

...and the limited functions they do perform now are trouble-filled and unreliable.

What color is the sky in your world???

My 505 does every single function I want of it: it displays ebooks. It doesn't try to be a tablet (I don't need one) or a netbook (I already have one) or anything else. It's an ebook reader. It performs the functions of an ebook reader. And "trouble-filled"? I've never had a moment's trouble with it. The closest it comes to "unreliable" is every few weeks the battery starts to get low, so I plug it in to charge for a few hours. I wish my netbook or my laptop could go that long.

The comparison is very simple: 1) What do you have to do to get text on your computer screen? 2) What do you have to do to get the same text on your e-reader?

Well, if I want good text on my computer screen, I alt-click the filename to download it and fire up calibre to read it. If I want it on my ebook reader, I plug in said reader, click on the book title, and click "send to device".

I don't find plugging in my reader and sending it a file to be onerous. Yes, it does take some time to re-index its files afterward, but given that I have several thousand books on there, this isn't all that surprising; I just let it do that while I'm grabbing a quick shower or something.

Just consider Google books, gutenberg.org, public libraries, PDFS, without even taking into account all the other stuff computers can do. All of these present no problem for netbooks/tablets but huge problems for e-readers...

Are we even talking about the same devices?

Seriously, "huge problems for e-readers"? Project Gutenberg? PDF files? (I don't borrow library ebooks, so someone else will have to address that) Maybe you've got some strange device or something, but PG and its fellow public-domain sites are what my reader does. I buy books, too, mostly from Baen, Smashwords, and O'Reilly, but 95% of my books are from PG, here on MR, Feedbooks, ManyBooks, or Google (except when Google's "text" is a hideously bad OCR, but nothing, not even my computer, can make sense of that). I have piles of PDFs -- including my books-wanted list, which I update on a regular basis -- and the only ones my 505 has issues with are the ones that aren't text at all, but just images of pages: those run into problems with resizing. I understand newer models don't have that problem.

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

It is you who are missing the point. I see that you have the same device I do (PB 360), which I have had to send back for repair (or hopefully my money back) for the third time in less than a year. So much for "excelling" at what they are meant to do.

So you have a wonky device, and you think this means that everyone else does too and we're all just lying about it?

Why am I even continuing this conversation?

The main problem has been (probably) that they are "meant to display ebooks," which is to say, SELL ebooks.

Maybe you're not speaking English. That might explain it. No, that is not just to say they're meant to sell ebooks. I've never bought an ebook via my reader (it doesn't have that capability). My ebook reader is meant to display ebooks, which means to make them appear on its screen and be readable. I can't imagine why I would want one that couldn't do that.

If they had concentrated instead on simply transferring text (including ebooks) from computer screen to reader, I am certain much more progress would have been made -- including re the No. 1 priority of RELIABILITY.

You're going on about reliability again, as if the whole world shares your problem with a defective device (though, given what you're saying about returns, I'm starting to suspect it might be a PEBKAC error). No. It doesn't. They are in fact RELIABLE. I've had my PRS-505 for going on two years now, and it has never given me a moment's trouble. It has never hinted at suggesting a thought of anything less than perfect reliability. And not only is my experience at least as typical as yours, but given the shortage of failure reports among the hundred thousand or so MR members, I'd say it's more typical.

Transferring text from screen to device is a software issue. Calibre does that for me. I don't even use Sony's own software. And given the several thousand ebooks I have on there, I seem to be able to do it without difficulty. I'm sorry to hear that you're having a problem with that, just as you're having a reliability problem, but I really don't think the device can be blamed.

It is far from "trivial to convert any text found on the net into an ebook any reader can display." First of all, most of what is on the net (e.g., Google books, not to mention PDFs and web pages) cannot be downloaded (by non-geeks), though it can be read easily online.

Most of what is on the net that people want to read on their ebook readers can be downloaded very nicely and very easily by non-geeks. Google books have that handy "download" link and a choice of PDF or epub. As for Web pages ... well, I have no interest in reading them on a 6" screen, but if I did, calibre could do it.

Second, Even if you can convert it in Calibre and download it to your ereader without further formatting (hardly "trivial"), you can't read it with anything like the ease of a computer.

How is it not trivial? Conversion: right-click and choose the desired option from the menu. On the very rare occasions I've needed to read something that wasn't epub or PDF, that was utterly trivial. Transfer: click the title and "send to device" from the big buttons. Reading it with the ease of a computer? I can't conveniently read my netbook in bed (I've tried). I certainly can't lug my desktop there. Neither one will, unlike my PRS-505, go into a large pocket. When it comes to displaying books -- to doing what it was intended to do, namely text -- I'll take the 505 over the computer every time. And that's not due to a shortage of computers.

There are problems everywhere, with page-turning, with navigation generally, bookmarking, note-taking, dictionaries, etc. -- things that are no problem at all on the computer.

Page-turning? Press the "next page" button.
Navigation? Press and hold "next" to skip pages. "Menu" takes you up a level. Etc. How is this hard?
Bookmarking? Press the "bookmark" button.
Note-taking? I don't take notes while I'm reading. (note: I'm not using my 505 for any classes; if I were, I'd have bought one with a keyboard)
Dictionaries? I feel as much need for a dictionary at my fingertips as I ever did with pbooks, which is to say none at all.
Despite your insistence on "problems everywhere", I find problems nowhere. My ebook reader is like a book, except that it contains about 2500 books for me to choose from.

Dude, I don't know what you want, but it isn't an ebook reader. And you're not going to convince the members of MobileRead that we're delusional or demented. We like our ebook readers. They display books for us. That's what we want them to do. We have no problems putting any books we want on our readers so we can read those books. And while some of us are those you scoff at as "geeks", most aren't (and, in fact, would have more problems with a netbook or a tablet). And, as we're mostly not prone to ID-ten-tee errors, they work.

[carpetmojo]

Such an all-encompassing answer, I hesitate to add anything, but just to say, (in support I hasten to mention) that my PRS 650 can use cards etc.. so you could, with the hugely burdensome task of keeping enough of them to fill a (small) matchbox, practically have the entire British Library with you for innstance access - should you ever fill up the HD .

[Or whatever my reader uses - it's all magic to me, like aeroplanes to be totally honest !]

[Cordanim]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i hope not. i like having a dedicated e-reader that does its job well rather than paying a lot more for features i won't be using and will just be a distraction

Bingo!

People around the office ask me why I wouldn't have gotten an iPad or other "cool" tablet.

After I explain that I would primarily probably only use it for reading, I sit them down and show them the screen and challenge them to read a book on their LCD display and see how fatigued their eyes get and how fast that battery drains...

Kev

[jabberwock_11]

I have a tablet, a regular notebook, a smartphone, and a dedicated ebook reader and I have to say that I almost never use the tablet. The notebook does everything I want as far as the internet or computing is concerned, the smartphone gives me access on the go, and the ereader is my device of choice for books. I tried to use the tablet a lot when I first got it, but found that I prefer to get on line and do other internet stuff using my notebook and that I prefer to read using my ebook reader. A lot of the people that I know are the same way. The tablet, when you get right down to it, just seems like a very limited netbook without a keyboard. It's sort of like the all in one entertainment center...sure you COULD have one device for your computer, TV, sound system, and blu ray/DVD player, but most people prefer to keep their dedicated devices. I know that ebook readers are not quite mainstream, but they are becoming a lot more wide spread and I just don't see a near by future where tablets will be able to compete at the same price point with the same battery life and ease of use.

[M0zza]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

What company will be smart enough to see the wisdom of what we are saying here? There might still be a chance a chance for them to capture the low end of the market, but I don't think they will try. (Again, greed and hubris rule.)

I'm assuming that that is a royal 'we'. I can not see anyone agreeing with you.

A lot of people prefer to have separate devices that do each task really well, be it eReader, MP3 player, PMP etc.

Myself, I do think that they will still be around but creep down in price. I think that the casual reader may well get a tablet instead once the prices come down further for them. It may lead to some of the bigger brands abandoning e-ink eReaders, but there will be companies that still produce them.

[mdmorrissey]

Here's what looks feasible and likely: Tablets with docking keyboards will acquire an e-ink (or equivalent) "e-reader mode."

[sabredog]

I just want to read a book, not be plagued by pop up SMS messages, email arrival chirps and a angry looking avian icon. Not to mention having to charge an all-in-one device every two days.

An ereader device is unashamedly single purpose which is how it should be.

[TaureanBull]

Ok. I will talk about near future prospects i.e 2-3 years.

Its likely to have a proper web browsing feature. Colour screen possibly. A better music player. Calling facility?!

It may start infiltrating the schools and colleges as a replacement of textbooks.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

Ok. I will talk about near future prospects i.e 2-3 years.

Its likely to have a proper web browsing feature. Colour screen possibly. A better music player. Calling facility?!

It may start infiltrating the schools and colleges as a replacement of textbooks.

I don't want a Web browsing feature on my 505. I don't even like using the browser on my Wii, on my unreasonably-huge-screen HD TV; I don't want the same thing only smaller, either. If I'm going to go wandering around the Web, I've got this computer for it. If I want to do it elsewhere, there's the laptop and the netbook. I have no more need for my ebook reader to function as a Web browser than for it to function as a birdfeeder.

If I could get a color screen with the same readability and resolution as my B&W screen, so I would only notice the difference when viewing color illustrations, that might be good. But given how few of the books I read have illustrations at all, and how few of those are anything except line drawings, I will not accept any trade-offs whatsoever (especially abandonment of e-ink) for that color capability. Now, in something of a size for reading coffee table books, I can see that ... but that isn't my ebook reader.

I certainly don't want a better music player. I never use the one I have now -- I tried it once, found out it sucked battery life, and have ignored it ever since. I have an MP3 player. I like it. I don't want my ebook reader to become a better MP3 player any more than I want my MP3 player to try to display ebooks for me (given that it's about the size of my thumb, I don't think it'll get very far with that).

Calling facility? Why, for the love of God, would I want to waste the weight, bulk, and annoyance of having my perfectly good ebook reader turn into a second-rate phone? I have a mobile phone. It hangs out on my belt. It's small. It does a great job of being a phone. I don't have to go around sticking an ebook reader to my face (thank God) and I hope I never need to.

Let's go back to knives, specifically kitchen knives. Like most people, I have a knife block full of knives in my kitchen (though, like most knife nuts, I daresay mine are a bit above average, though not professional chef level). And like most people I have a Swiss Army Knife or two hanging around. Yes, my Swiss Army Knife can do a sorta-okay job of being a knife, or being a pair of scissors, or being a nail file, or whatever. But when I'm cooking dinner, I get the knives I need from my excellent kitchen knife collection (not really a set anymore, as I've replaced several). When I need scissors, I have the kitchen shears there, the rugged but ugly paper scissors in the drawer, the general-purpose ones in the pencil jar, etc. When I need a screwdriver, unless it's an emergency, I get a real screwdriver, of which I have dozens in every imaginable size and type, not the puny and awkward one supplied by the Swiss Army Knife. Etc., etc., etc. Simply put, I don't want a half-assed tool to do a half-assed job when an alternative is available. And that's as true of ebook readers as it is of pocket knives. There was a point in my life when I fell for the "but wait -- there's more!" pitch, and bought multi-purpose devices that did many things badly. I realized, after a while, that I'd rather have devices that did one thing well. I'll find the space, somewhere, to put my rice cooker because it cooks rice better than anything else does. And if I need a phone, a Web browser, an MP3 player, or a tablet computer, I'll get one -- not buy an ebook reader that's trying to be one.

I do, however, have that ebook chip for my Nintendo DS Lite. It's small, true, and LCD, but I have that with me on the rare occasions I don't have my 505 (it fits in even smaller pockets), and, as Thomas Jefferson said, I cannot live without books. Or at least I don't want to try.

[TaureanBull]

I agree with you! But thats not what everyone wants. And thats what the designers will target. They have to compete and provide more features than others. Thats the hard truth.

[elcreative]

Funnily enough, it is what a lot of people do want... a straightforward device that does a straightforward job well... Las year the best selling mobile in Japan was supposed to b e a phone that let you make phone calls, simply and easily with no multi-level menus because there were no multifunction options... it made phone calls, kept your phone numbers and received phone calls...

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

I agree with you! But thats not what everyone wants. And thats what the designers will target. They have to compete and provide more features than others. Thats the hard truth.