TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Mr. Barringer, I think misses the point. To begin with he confuses the medium (e-books) with one particular type of device that is used to read them (e-book readers).

It, of course, would be nice if our e-book readers could do all the other things that he says they should as handhelds but at least with respect to e-Ink based devices, its not currently practical. There are devices that in fact are capable of doing those things, and have been for years. PDAs and Smart Phones have been capable of reading e-books for years, long before the Kindle and the Sony PRS got going. So one has to ask, in an era when the trend in portable computing is to stuff everything into a cell phone, why have dedicated e-book readers taken off?

I think the answer is relatively simple really. The more you expect a device to do, the more compromises you have to make to get it to do all of them. Modern Smart Phones are wonderful things. With mine, I can make phone calls, browse the web, connect to the computer systems I administer, keep a calendar of meetings, get directions, play games and even read an e-book. For getting information or doing things that are needed right now, its an essential. For killing a few minutes of downtime it is nice. That being said, it would never be my first choice for doing any of the above activities except for making calls and keeping a calendar; too many compromises have been made on all of these devices (including the iPhone) to make the experience the equal of a full computer or a dedicated device.

Now, for a person who reads on the subway or in short snippets a smartphone might make an adequate e-reader. But for the person for whom reading is a major part of their life, the compromises involved are too significant to make a smart phone their choice of primary e-book reader.

Indeed, despite the fact that pretty much every form of media we can enjoy can be enjoyed on either our computer or our smart phone, we still buy TVs, stereos, dedicated gaming consoles and even paper books argues that perhaps there is something lacking in the experience provided by these devices.

To put it in simple terms, the reason for the Kindle, the Sony PRS, the Jetbook, etc. is that many of us like to read for hours at a stretch. We need a device that can essentially be used for at least a day, preferably several, without needing to be recharged. We want a device with a screen large enough so that a reasonable amount of text will fit on it… we also want a screen that will minimize eyestrain (which is not the case on smart phones). In other words, we need reading devices that actually facilitate the reading experience rather than compromise it in order to support other features.

Aside from the above commenters’ points, my Kindle DOES let me search a dictionary and Wikipedia and the whole web if I want to. But the fact is that I rarely use those functions (except for using the dictionary to look up words) because I read mostly fiction. If you are reading MOBY DICK, you really don’t want or need to browse the web for the latest research on whales; you just want to read the story. My net book, on the other hand, does all the things he is talking about, but I don’t want to read on it for long because the screen is not e-ink. The new Pixel Qi is trying to do both (LCD screen that can mimic e-ink), but I, for one, am happy having my eReader as a separate device. It works for me.

“and the Kindle instead has less. You should be able to access encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other searchable resources, just like we can on the computer or the iPhone.”

Clearly this bloke has not used a Kindle as it in fact can do everything he claims that it cannot.

Whatever.

As Mags so aptly says “And sometimes you just want to read a book.”

Every new techknology have this perfectly specialized slick and widely hyped product that 10 years down the road proves to be copletely bypassed when mass market push finnaly comes, the dedicated ereaders and the whole eink device think might be that.

The kindle will stay remembered but most of the public will never use one and probably not even want it once something like it becomes cheap, it’s the same fate of the early mac’s they got all the press but commodore and sinclair ran with almost all the sales and when the wintel PC came about they almost died off, and only survived by turning into unix workstations.

The big problem with the icons is that they are perfectly tailored to the retrofuturistic vision of what the new media is susposed to bring but not really on the forefront of the things that only the new media can bring, and i think the ebook mess is the same the kindle wont actually be the driving force behind anything, all of that is happening in a browser somewhere outside of the inside press’s scope, theres plenty of digital only prerelease textbooks floating around universities for instance, and people read of their lcd screens all day long.

Daniel,

No offense, but your analogy is a poor one. You are comparing a single company’s products (The Mac) with a class of devices (The dedicated e-book readers). Further, the Mac was outsold by Commodore and Sinclair (And Apple’s own Apple II line) because the latter were far cheaper and targeted at the Home and Education market compared to the Mac and the PC’s which were targeted at professionals.

In any case, what all but killed off ultimately was the Windows essentially copied most of the Mac experience. In other words, when a product very much like a Mac was made available at half the price, it became very popular. Macs made a very accurate prediction about the future of computers (Well, except the web part ), they only failed to capitalize on the future they predicted.

I agree that ultimately dedicated E-readers might well be replaced. But not with what are currently thought of as PDA’s. Ultimately, I think whether dedicated e-readers get replaced in the market place depends on two factors.

The first is display technology. Dedicated e-readers can generally take advantage of e-ink and non-backlit LCD screens to provide longer battery lives and reduced eye strain. The problem of course is that these technologies provide a somewhat less than satisfying internet experience. However, as new technologies emerge that can provide color, rapid refresh and extended battery life, the case for dedicated e-readers will decline.

The second factor, and one that might be a bit more unlikely, is the form factor. The biggest issue with using other devices (I think) to read novels is the screen size. Buyers of dedicated e-book readers want screens that are larger than PDA/smart phone screens and often smaller than full sized tablet or laptop computers. While there are some MIDs that have screens in the 5-10″ range, they are hardly taking over the world. The problem is that they are too large to be fully portable, and too small to justify using them at home in preference of a laptop. Perhaps some of the netbook based tablets will change that.

So, how long will dedicated e-book readers be with us? Who knows? My guess is that they will continue to exist so long as the market for 5-10″ MIDs remains tiny.

–
Bill