‘Let e-readers be e-reader’: Why ex-HarperCollins exec wants E Ink gizmos to focus on App One
"Let’s not turn them into all-purpose devices until we get the reading details right," reads the subhead over a Big Money piece on E Ink machines like the Kindle.
The author is Marion Maneker, former publisher of a business imprint at HarperCollins.
So what do you think, gang? I myself know how many people hate device-clutter, prefer a Swiss Army Knife approach and want their Kindles to be more versatile. The forthcoming netbooks with E Ink-style capabilities might delight more than a few of those shoppers.
Meanwhile many will continue to root for Kindles and the like to have better and better Web browsers and email. If nothing else, browsers should be handy for obtaining public domain works and nonDRMed books from non-Amazon sources. I’m not sure exactly where Maneker himself stands on browsers, which of course can be used for plenty besides e-reading. I do know he’s considers color a bell or whistle—an assertion that many textbook readers might dispute.
Other issues, including a major Catch-22 of the Kindle
Those are is far from the only issues Maneker covers. For example, he correctly notes that the Kindle could organize books and other content better. What’s more, here’s an important Catch-22 that Maneker discusses:
…On the Amazon device, there is no way to look at the table of contents of a magazine before purchasing a single copy, let alone to pay for only the stories you want to read. The assumption seems to be that readers will already know from other sources which articles they want to read are lurking where—call it the print fallacy.
That’s a denial of the main mission of journalism: to tell you what’s news. On the Kindle—and I know it is very early to complain—all of the signifiers invented over the course of the 20th century to entice a reader to purchase a single copy of a magazine are absent. There’s no cover, let alone cover lines, and no table of contents (though one can migrate through section lists to get to lists of headlines and descriptive decks).
So the Kindle is only halfway toward becoming what a minimally functional reader ought to be. It allows you access to content you know you want but does not allow you to easily discover the content you’ve yet to become familiar with.
Also of interest: Related Wired piece by Maneker, on “How the Next Kindle Could Save the Newspaper Business.” I’m not so sure, given the device’s cost and the competition that paid-content sites will be receiving from free.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Currently, I read ebooks on a “Swiss Army knife”, a PDA. There are certain things a dedicated reader would have to do as well or better before I’ll switch.
File organization is one of them, to take an example. It always amuses me to see discussions about which external file organizer is better. My opinion is that you shouldn’t have to need an external file organizer. My PDA has a traditional file structure, and I organize my ebooks quite nicely, thank you.
Would the larger screen make up for some shortfalls in a reader? Yes, but it needs to be a well designed, well thought-out reader. Ebook readers and file structures need to have tolerable multiformat capability, good organization tools, working tables of contents, actual indices, etc. to justify a dedicated device. Sort of like the books and libraries we have now, huh?
Barring that, I’ll stick to my PDA, where I can read most books most of the time, and I’m not tied to one limited, imperfect approach.
Regards,
Jack Tingle
July 7th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I don’t see what’s wrong with everyone being able to choose how they enjoy their reading. Multiple devices with multiple functions and choices (from one to a hundred) benefits everyone. Let Kindle do what they want… if I don’t like it, I’ll buy another device, or continue to read on my PDA. But I maintain that ALL e-books should be readable on ALL reading devices, or we are ALL being done a disservice.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Very, very rarely do I use my Kindle to go on the web. As far as I am concerned, it is a reading device of books, blogs, newspapers and magazines and I am quite content with it. I do not need for it to do everything. My iPhone can do everything, even be a reader, but the small screen and subsequent eye strain makes me confine its use to the occasional 5 minutes standing in line here and there. I read way too much for it to be satisfactory for hours and hours of reading, which my Kindle is.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:59 am
An ‘all purpose’ device like a netbook will never give you the comfortable reading experience that a dedicated eReader will - it’s not easy to just grab it with one hand, or lay on your back while reading, for example. The LCD screens are not built for book or document consumption either. Another challenge is battery life – eReaders offer days, even weeks of battery life, not hours.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I agree emphatically with Karel regarding the comfort and battery life of the eReaders. However, if Apple ever puts forth the rumored iPad (netbook with touch interface), I will be one of the first to want one. But not to read on.