Ever since I first saw the original Sony Reader — wow, almost three years ago now — the product line has impressed me, technologically. From the E Ink screen that resembles paper to the extremely lightweight design, Sony had seemed to think of everything. I was sure it would be a hit. It wasn't.
Then when Amazon came out with its Kindle e-reader, it added something new to the mix: wireless technology so you could download books wherever you are. Cool! It has to be a hit now. Amazon's mum on the number of e-readers its sold, but considering in the year since its debut I've seen someone reading one on the New York City subway exactly once, I think it's fairly safe to say the Kindle hasn't lit the world on fire.
What's the problem with e-readers? It's not like people don't read — when I saw that guy reading the Kindle there were at least a dozen people within 10 feet with their noses in books, newspapers and magazines. Why haven't e-readers replaced them? My theory on why e-readers aren't taking the world by storm after the Continue jump, and how they can improve to become the next "It" gadget.
E-Readers: The Future
Better technology is only half the answer. There are a number of upgrades that e-readers could use in order for them to become a true alternative to print, but they're well on their way. E-readers are already lightweight and easy to use. The E Ink they use in lieu of LCDs does a great job of simulating the look of a piece of paper, and since they don't emit light, they save on power, too.
They could do better, though. Job 1: color. Although Sony says it's "years" away from coming to market with a color e-reader, the slow march of progress is inevitable — color readers will eventually happen. Better wireless abilities are a must as well. Although the Kindle has an always-on network connection, improvements to the speed and coverage are needed, and there should be the option of switching to a much-faster Wi-Fi connection where it's available. Improved memory and battery life will make these things more feasible. And while we're talking about upgrades, a softer, flexible screen would make it possible to create an e-reader that's double sided, just like a real book.
Forget Books. Periodicals Are the True E-Reader Market
The big thing holding back e-readers is that they're focused on the wrong market, namely books. Books are a tough technology to improve upon. They're super-simple, require no power, are very durable (provided they're bound well), look great on a shelf, and are extremely collectable. E-readers take a distant second place to books in every single one of those categories. Anyone making e-readers should move the focus away from replicating books and move to the real market: periodicals.
E-readers excel in one key area that books don't: their content is updatable. For anyone interested in news, this is the killer app. With rare exceptions, people don't save or collect newspapers — the vast majority of newsprint is trashed or recycled. Eliminating the pile of paper, the going to the porch in your bathrobe, and the ink that gets on your hands would a big upgrade for a lot of people.
Of course, e-readers don't replicate the newspaper experience fully — yet. You can't browse in the same way you can on big broadsheet pages, though flexible screens will help. You don't get the same layout, though using PDF files (or something like them) will help. You don't get color, but you will… someday (see above).
Ultimately, though, people get newspapers for the information, and the more timely the better. With its wireless tech, Amazon's Kindle is one of the only e-readers that enables people to have The New York Times waiting for them on their kitchen table every morning. So it's a mystery to me why Amazon lists only 28 newspapers on its Kindle site (Wikipedia lists hundreds, if not thousands, in existence, and that's just the U.S.). Even worse, there are just 18 magazines listed. I think I have more on my coffee table at home. And what about the alternative weeklies, like the Village Voice or the Hartford Advocate?
iTunes for Newspapers
OK, I get it. No one has united newspaper and magazine publishers behind a central marketplace where they can sell their content digitally. No one has standardized all the formats, the functionality, and the pricing. In short, no one has created the iTunes for periodicals. And maybe outside of Steve Jobs and Apple, no one could.
But that needs to happen for e-readers to truly succeed. People love reading books, but the hurdle e-readers can never jump is that people also love having books. Not so with periodicals. The e-reader that becomes a mass-market device will be the one whose maker creates the perfect digital newsstand, the iTunes experience for newspapers and magazines. Sony, Amazon — you'd better do this soon, lest Apple do it for you.
editor@dvice.com
By Evan Jones at 8:51 PM ON 11/13/08
Wonderful points. I love my books and have literally thousands of them. I've fiddled with electronic readers — the computer I'm typing on, by the way, is a great big bulky one if you'll stop to think about it — but I could never read an entire book on one, even if it was book-sized. Yet, I spend hours and hours (here I am at DVICE) reading news and articles on an electronically refreshed interface. If I could do that on a book-sized device, I could ease back into my chair and imagine the sound of crinkling paper. You're absolutely right about this, in my opinion, and right about Steve Jobs as well. A wake-up call for Sony and Amazon.
By jay jay at 9:25 PM ON 11/13/08
Are you crazy!!!! NEWSPAPERS why in the world would i pay money to read a newspaper on a 400 dollar device that only allows me to read newspapers when i could read it for FREE!!! on my laptop that allows me to do a boat load of ther things. Amazon has the right idea i read alot of books but for the most part i only read it once also, i would love to use the kindle because though i cost 400 dollars it would pay for it self in just few months because there ebooks are cheaper( $10 i think) compare to paper (average $20-$30). theres only one thing holding ereaders back .... THE PRICE nothing more than that.
By Marinus at 2:45 AM ON 11/14/08
Like JAY JAY here I don't wanna spend any money on something I could read fo free. In most of Europe you can get fee newspapers in all forms of public transport. Who would be so gad-damn retarded to pay €450 euro's for some fake paper? (and yes, that's 450 euro's, about 600 dollars :O )
By thexfile at 2:56 AM ON 11/14/08
nice , i think there is stil a whole market for E-readers that is not even discussed in this article.
and when i say that i mean general info that is thought of as "useles"
in ways i don't get why the makers of E-readers and E-paper don't see this.
it's out there in the same programs that stimulated the drive to make them ea startrec etc..
the big beaktrough of E-readers and E-paper lies in what i can "usles info"
info wich needs to be exchaged but we throw away.
and when i say this i'm not thinking of newspapers and books.
they bring to much emotions withe them.
i mean realy usles info like :
- office memmo's / documents
ex that paper you had to read that was maild to you by a coleage of yours , the one you realy did not want to read behind your pc , so you insted printed out to read in your luch hour in the park.
Or that notary of the last (staf) meeting you had.
wich everybody gets a copy of at the beginning and then throws away.
if you had put that on an E-reader you would not have wasisted that paper.
- restourant menues
they are things that in some restourants change dayly / weekly.
something we look at for a breef moment.
and your not going to tel me that it matters that the "wine list" is on a pc rather then a peace of "real" paper... remember you can make E-readers just as fance as a real menus lether bound and all.
- museum maps/info
Just think of those guided tours trough museums.
rather then getting a map you get an E-reader.
and as you pas trough you can serch for your intrests , or find aditional exiting and maby unexpected info on that artist painting / sculpture you just fel in love withe.
or maby explain to you the meaning of an artpeace you thought was not realy good.
not losing your way trough the maze of coridors.
would'nt that be wunderful ??
- library's
just think your going in , and your looking for that 1 book you like...
so you look it up , and you then have to find it.
insted of wondering aimlesly you get an E-reader and it shows you where it is.... or it shows you the list of books / musick / videos you wanted to brouws trough and maby take home....
then when your done you can just go and relax have a coffy and brows trough the general info in your easy chair while your looking out of the window of the top floor of your new age library ( like the one in many sitty's )
you can go very far withe this technologie
- (safty) info on shirts
ex your on a al inclusive vacation withe excurzions..... insted of the clip bords put E-reader.
the sign on the busses saying wich excursion , E-readers
the sign telling Mr and Mrs X that your here to pick them up standing at the airport chekout...
- advertising and ads in shop windows
ex that house you looked at in the window of an estate agent.
- general info on trains / bus / plane sceduals
just emadgine that bord on your stop displaying a realtime time table and maby the unforrtunate delay and why it hapend.
displaying that yes you realy are "here"
this is all generaal "boring" and "usles" info where E-readers and E-paper would exel at and where we hav'nt seen it beeing used yet !!
so if they did it on startreck then why did we think we could replace an emotional thing as a book ???
By fatal_error at 4:41 AM ON 11/14/08
i like e-book's got a load for my pocket pc
I actualy think there better than real books
since you dont need a light on to read them
By sherpa at 7:16 AM ON 11/14/08
for me the biggest issue is cost. the only books i would be replacing would be paperbacks. the cost of most books is greater than the cost of the paperback version and that is before investing in the ereader.
price the reader at $150 and teh books around $10.... i'll buy one.
By mad_balkan at 7:50 AM ON 11/14/08
School market is where these should start...
How many books get printed every year for college students??? You might say, use your computer... but even when you're studying you need to see the book and type at the same time...
Has any of these added annotation capability to the book you're reading??? They ability to add a note or highlight would make these a must...
Imaging only carrying a Kindle instead of a stack of reference books...
Then the trickle down to High School, etc... Reductions in cost due to no more printing/shipping... A bit sturdier/waterproof and you've got something that a kid could use for years... And no more back-pack strain... And maybe, just maybe, schools could replace a crappy book with a better one more quickly if the books cost next to nothing per student/year???
By Wim at 10:02 AM ON 11/14/08
Make the tablet pc cheaper and voila: a great ebook.
I've been using different tablet pc's for 6 years now. My favorite is a slate: no keyboard, looks like an ebook, only heavier and only 8 hours of battery.
I use my tablet for reading books, reading blogs playing shockwave games and making drawings for presentations. Yes, it has wifi and 3G.
Right now I'm waiting for something new, because my Fujitsu 5011 is really bashed up after three years (before that I had a clunky Fujistsu 2500). Unfortunately, there is nothing really better than what I have. My current tablet has a great reflective screen:best in direct sunlight.
I would realy like to replace my reflective screen with a color-eInk. No more need for a light, less weight in the screen and more battery.
Unfortunately, color eInk is still years away. The best (from Fujitsu) still has a 10 second refreshrate, bye bye shockwave games :(.
Even the current black-white eInk screens have a nasty flash-black-flash-new-page routine. Very slow.
Right now it looks like the slate-tablets are really losing from the convertible-tablets-with-keyboard. Where is the briliant engineer that makes an netbook-slate for 400 dollar, THAT would really beat an ebook.
By CoolProducts at 1:19 PM ON 11/14/08
Price WILL go down and be reasonable. The reason prices are so high is due to price skimming. Once real competition hits the market, prices will fall. As well, I see a huge market for eReaders. In the years to come, if they can devise a practical way to get your subscriptions to the WSJ, etc sent to your ereader they'll be a huge hit. It is by far more convenient than flipping through a big newspaper each day on the tram, etc.
By PeterD at 3:36 PM ON 11/14/08
The reason e-readers aren't taking off is simple - the cost of entry is too high. It won't matter how many features get added to the reader or its service, it just costs too much for the average person to pick one up. I'd love to have a Kindle, but I can't afford it, even if the books on it are a little cheaper. The up-front cost is simply too high.
By sroloff at 4:13 PM ON 11/14/08
while some very valid points on e-readers you are missin the point that alot of people refuse to buy an e-reader simply because their are way too many authors out there that refuse to allow their books to be uploaded like this. while you still have to pay for the book and the author still gets their cut for sales... they just dont like the 'idea' and are super slow to change... i mean, really, who wants to buy an e-reader when they cant get their favorite author?
By rob at 5:26 PM ON 11/14/08
wonder if added comics , somethings visional , help plus may make a market, comicbook lovers can download dig comic books , a thought
By Atagahi at 7:14 PM ON 11/14/08
I have the Kindle and I read books on it. I love it. It is lighter than most hardcovers and at $9.99 or less for most books, including current bestsellers, it saves money over the long run for me.
It also saves my back. I had to get rid of most of my books when I moved to San Francisco. The ones that I kept were heavy to move and hard to store in a tiny apartment.
Now I buy the electronic version of books and save my back and apartment space.
Some corrections to the above comments: The Wall Street Journal is already available to be delivered to the Kindle for a monthly subscription ($9.99). The books are already less than $10.
I agree that annotation needs to be improved and apparently is on the way for the college textbook market.
Periodicals will be the killer app for e-readers when they get color screens.
By atomicboomerang at 8:54 PM ON 11/15/08
No, it's just the price.
By mlewj at 11:08 PM ON 11/16/08
I have had my Amazon Kindle for 3 months now and I love it. It goes where I go. The features are great. I have access to the web if I need it. Check my email, download books, magazines, blogs, search my favorite websites. You can even bookmark a site. The Kindle is deffently worth the $359 dollars I paid for it. Several times over.
By mmaitzen at 9:39 AM ON 11/20/08
I have been reading e-books for years now. First on a Palm and now on an iPhone. I like that I can store the books but not take up a lot of space on a shelf and I don't have to hold the pages open as with a paperback. I also find that I have been reading lots of news stories lately with the AP app from the iTunes store. It was free and I get little banner ads but they go away after a few seconds so I don't mind them at all.
I think I would not get a reader-only but having something that does a lot of things for me makes it worth it.
I should also mention that I got a DVD-ROM with the first forty years of the Fantastic Four. I only look at that on a computer screen though as the iPhone screen is just too small for that kind of thing.
By Catalyst at 8:59 PM ON 11/20/08
My reasons for not getting one of these expensive eReaders is simple: I've technically already got one. I have a Palm Centro, and have been getting Palm products since the Zire. I can buy most books I want for the eReader on there. I've got nearly an entire series on my current Palm. The cost of it was cheaper than Sony or Amazon's reader, and I have far more options of what to do on my Palm. I can listen to music, watch videos (in the right format, unfortunately), write and read Word and Excel documents, read PDFs, play games, and it acts as my calender and alarm system. When I can get that for $50 with a contract with AT&T, or $200-300 through eBay, why pay hundreds for something that I can read books on just because it looks like paper and ink?
In addition to that, many of my friends have another problem with these, and won't even read stuff on my PDA because of it: they like the feel of the book. The feel and sound of turning the page is part of the experience for them. I'm content to read things on a digital screen and turn the page with a tap, but they like the hefty feel of some of the larger books, and the smooth feeling of the paper. I'm sure there are others like that out there as well.
Between those two, I'm not surprised if eReaders aren't taking off. There's better ways out there, if you ask me.
By cjkosh at 4:42 AM ON 11/21/08
Where e-readers could be useful is in education. How many students have had to buy the newest edition of a textbook because a few paragraphs changed, or had difficulty selling back an old textbook for more than a few dollars because of same?
Instead of carrying around an array of books all day, you could just carry a reader, with all of the relevant new-edition books or chapters downloaded. The information could be set to expire at the end of the semester, so costs to the student could be far less than the sometimes several hundred dollars for books each semester.
The reader could be modified to allow highlighting, etc. and for notes in the reader itself with a stylus maybe. Just an idea.
By teslavate at 2:15 AM ON 12/28/08
--- E-Readers will catch on when they become affordable to the common man/woman on the street. I like the idea of the e-readers but I am unwilling to shell out upto $800 for one that has the features one needs to make it useful, back lighting, size, resolution, wireless access, available content, etc.
--- And then on top of that of course there will be a subscription charge for accessing the wireless information.
--- And there is the size. When they come up with one that will collapse or roll up somehow (Think "Red Planet" the flimzy maps in the movie) it will be much more desirable.
--- But the main hinderance in my opinion is simply the cost involved. When they come up with a full featured model for less than $100 then I think they may start catching on better.
By Boraxo at 12:28 AM ON 01/05/09
The e-readers lack one other advantage that real books possess: a secondary market. I can sell a used copy of a book on Amazon, eBay, to a local used book store. But if I lay out all that money up front for a Kindle, I have no way to re-sell a copy of a book I've purchased and no longer want to keep. Stupid shortcoming, it would shift the economics in a favorable way without costing the manufacturers a cent.