Can Electronic Book Readers Succeed?

Nov 18

Editorial David 9 Comments
amazon, apple, book, download, DRM, e-book, ebook, electronic, file, freedom, iphone, ipod, kindle, market, mobile, mobile phone, mp3, pdf, phone, sharing, store

Approximate reading time is 3 minutes

Electronic Book Readers

With the release of the International Kindle from Amazon, the subject of e-book readers is heating up. This is one of those technologies I want to love, who wouldn’t? You have a low power device that gives you a much more natural, ink on paper, like reading experience than any backlit LCD screen can. Then with Amazon you have an integrated discovery and delivery method for receiving books to your reader, just like Apple did for the MP3 player with iTunes.

Then again, I’ve just compared the Kindle book store to iTunes, perhaps this is where the problems start. We all know that in its early days, iTunes was locked up with DRM to the point of madness, the only way to free your content was to burn everything to audio CD and re-rip to MP3. Of course, things are now better in the digital download music market, with DRM gone and a choice of music stores. Although, both the movie and e-book industries have yet to catch up to the current state of sanity we enjoy with music downloads. I remember many years ago when I experimented with the e-book store for my Palm Pilot. Not only were your e-books tied to your credit card number, but they were tied to your device too. If either changed there wasn’t a clear route for how to get your books back. So when I did inevitably change my device, I lost my books.

With the Kindle, things aren’t quite so restrictive, from what I’ve been able to find out, not having one myself, your books are only tied to your Amazon account. This means that you can transfer to new Kindles, and also to the iPhone application. Unfortunately, Amazon haven’t released an application for other mobile platforms yet. Still though, the Kindle isn’t the only e-book reader out there (there’s also Sony and Bebook readers), but you can’t get your Amazon e-books on any of them. Whereas, the music I buy from any music store on the web can be played on any device I like. So the Amazon e-book system still ties you to the one device, just like iTunes with the iPod, which I submit is a reason not to use iTunes. The same goes for all current e-book stores.

My phone vs the Kindle. Which would you rather carry around?

I think the e-book and movie industries needs to learn from history. All encompassing ecosystems like iTunes work for a while, until the market (i.e. consumers) learn enough about the restrictions that DRM puts on them. Electronic documents already have a standard, PDF, which is so ubiquitous, it would be hard to imagine any other format being used. Yes, PDF’s can be copied without restriction, just like MP3’s. Although, a recent study has shown what many people believed all along, file sharers buy the most music, and I am certain that the same will be true for books and movies when they are available DRM free. Currently, the only way to get DRM free e-books and movies is illegal. Which is a shame for those industries, because by not using DRM free formats they are denying themselves a large and enthusiastic market segment.

Finally, lets look at the devices themselves. Despite the attractive features I mentioned at the beginning of this, it is still another device to carry around and look after. E-book readers are fairly large when compared to the likes of MP3 players and mobile phones. They are also expensive, the cheapest setting you back over £200. Sure, I imagine they’d be nice to have laying around at home. Although, in our busy lives, sometimes the best time to read a few pages of a book is in those strange little pockets time during the day (as David Allen would put it). Is it really worth carrying around something the size of an e-book reader? In these days when convergence seems to be an irresistible force, I find it hard to believe that e-book readers will get a firm foothold when mobile phones can do the same job, with a PDF application providing a free or inexpensive electronic book reading function.

Share this post

9 Comments (+add yours?)

Rarst
Nov 18, 2009 @ 17:08:03

I think you are missing that there are books and devices outside of locked down ecosystems like Kindle. My reader didn’t came with store (only with CD packed full of free classics), I have no restrictions on what I can upload on it and no DRM in sight.

“Currently, the only way to get DRM free e-books and movies is illegal.”

You may not have DRM-free option for every single book, but there are loads of books with expired copyright and released under open licenses.

On device inconvenience – you are behind times. Practice had already proved that those people who can afford ebook reader are perfectly fine with using it.

And mobile phones and other supposed alternatives aren’t alternatives as long as they don’t offer comparable quality of reading.

Reply
- David
  Nov 18, 2009 @ 17:16:40
  
  Hi there, thanks for the comment
  
  I take your points, but I stand by my comments. Of course there are out of copyright books, like you mentioned, which are available. Two good sites for getting these are Project Guttenberg and Feedbooks. Although, contemporary, and even not so contemporary books, which sell in very large volumes are under copyright are and not available in DRM free digital form without breaking the law.
  
  On device inconvenience, I accept this is subjective to a point. Although, I can hand-on-heart say, from personal experience, that phone screens are more than adequate to the task. As I say in the caption of the image – which would you rather carry around with you?
  
  Reply
Wizard Prang
Nov 25, 2009 @ 20:27:25

From up here in the cheap seats, I still think that the elephant in the room is that e-books are waaaay overpriced, and that is why they have not caught on.

Think about it. With no material cost, no middlemen and miniscule distribution cost, the price of an e-book is almost all profit. And yet they insist that e-book price = paperback price. Ridiculous. And DRM makes the e-book substantially less valuable; I can resell, lend or give away a paperback, multiplying its value. Locking it to a particular player is just plain silly. Why not have an “passalong” option that removes a book from your player and puts it on someone else’s? Because the publishers _really_ don’t want it. Oh, and lifetime+80 copyright is way too long to be useful.

The publishers seem to be stuck on the early CD business model (Get them to pay more for something that is cheaper to produce and manufacture).

There are two business models that will work: Cellphone business model (free reader with subscription or price of reader folded into purchases), or PDA business model (expensive reader, cheap content).

I blogged this four years ago. In spite of the Kindle, nothing has changed.

http://wizardprang.wordpress.com/2005/06/07/why-e-books-never-caught-on/

Reply
- David
  Nov 26, 2009 @ 00:34:51
  
  Hi there,
  Thanks for the comment.
  
  I have to say I agree with you, and your blog post. To me it seems common sense. More than that, the music industry has proved that this model can work. Sure, MP3s are somewhat over-priced but I can live with the current situation. I don’t know why the book and movie industries fail to see this as a solution.
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts
  
  Reply
Alan
Jan 04, 2010 @ 01:31:54

The Sony Reader supports some DRM file types but also all of the no-DRM and even the open source standard which will be used by UK libraries. It is def a better choice than the Kindle which is locked down as per your article

Reply
Wizardprang
Jan 04, 2010 @ 02:55:14

I can already read e-books on my Tungsten T3, and I have been doing so for years.

The problem, once again, is cost. Either drop the price to $99 for the player and <$5 per book, or bundle the player free with a service package.

That's what I am willing to pay, take it or leave it. So far they have been leaving it

I'm off to the library now…

Reply
- Alan
  Jan 04, 2010 @ 19:01:24
  
  You cannot compare phones and PDAs to an Ebook Reader. The screens are completely different. The “e ink” used on the readers is so much clearer and easier on the eye. I am not a fan of this tech but got my partner one for Christmas and she loves it, doesn’t put it down.
  
  Reply
Matthias
Feb 05, 2010 @ 10:52:54

I see your point in comparing e-book readers to mobile phones. I have been reading on my phones for a while now but got a Kindle a couple of weeks ago.
The point is that phones are too small to hold and read comfortably and thedisplay is not optimized for reading an extended period of time.
My Kindle addresses those points precisely, it has a decent size to hold and the e-ink display is made for reading. Add to that the almost nonexistant power consumption and being able to use it in different positions made me get the device.
I am happy I did.
Your other points about being tethered to one supplier of books are of course totally valid.

Reply
- David
  Feb 05, 2010 @ 11:03:49
  
  Hi Matthias,
  Thanks for your thoughtful comment
  
  I take your points as well, and I guess it’s a matter of individual choice. Especially with the screen size. Regarding that however, phone screens are getting larger. So even while you may have less text on screen at one time, you’re going to be able to get larger text on screen (e.g. N97, HD2).
  
  For myself, I just like convergence and don’t want any more gear laying around than I need have, so I accept the sacrifice of a nice e-ink screen.
  
  Thanks again for commenting!
  David
  
  Reply

David.R.Gilson