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According to a survey of over one-thousand professionals active in book publishing, a device by Apple functioning as an e-reader will be the primary factor of driving digital book publishing foward. The survey was executed just before a conference about the future of books in London on December 2.
Over 88% of survey takers belief that book shops will lose out from the growth in digital sales. Just like traditional music stores have done in the past with the growth of online music stores. The high price of e-books is still perceived as a problem for the growth of digital book sales. As buyers do not understand why online versions of the same books have to be just as costly as the prices of actual printed versions.
Back to how the Apple tablet fits in to this picture. With confirmed content backing for the Apple Tablet by the New York Times, Wired Magazine, Vogue and GQ (being not just these publications, but these companies as publishers of many more publications), Apple clearly sees the market opportunity here. Users do not like a stand-alone device with one function, such as an e-reader. Giving them the ability to handle a comprehensive device such as the Apple tablet on which they can browse the web, write notes, work on spreadsheets and for leisure listen to music, watch movies and read books seems like a better solution.
[Via TheBookSeller]
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David Kaplan Said,
January 12, 2010 @ 03:15
I completely disagree with this projection. I don’t know what the control factors were in this survey, but the numbers are clearly inaccurate. As an e-reader, the tablet – in it’s current iteration – is clearly inferior. The difference is in the display.
Tablets, laptops, netbooks, and desktops all use displays that are projective. Light is transmitted from the display to the user’s eyes through pixels. Typical computer users “scan” the monitor areas for information and zoom in on the area they are concerned with. When a person browses the internet and finds content they want to ready, they typical scan the page looking for key bits of information. This phenomenon happens while reading PDFs and ebooks as well. The reason for this is because projective displays are like lightbulbs. Few people can stand staring at a lightbulb. Additionally, LCD screens use artificial light which is difficult on the eyes.
On the other hand, e-readers like Kindle and Nook use “reflective” technologies and have higher resolution. Little, micro “ink” capsules rotate back-and-forth under the glass to display black, white, and gray. Ambient light then bounces off these capsules and into the user’s eyes. The result is an image using light that is diffused and potentially coming from natural sources like the sun. Also, because the light is ambient, the user’s eyes don’t need to constantly adjust to varying levels of light if they happen to look away and then back to the screen. The result doesn’t sap the user’s reading stamina and this is much more suited to typical, immersion reading – the kind that is done when people read novels or textbooks for hours on end.
For this reason alone, I think that once they figure out how to make “color e-ink” the “e-reader” will dominate the e-pub market. Apple and others would have to make fundamental changes to their tablet PC hardware and user interface to match what an e-reader can do.
Also, there’s the nostalgia factor. People simply like to read books, flip pages, etc. E-readers are much closer to that sentiment.
I don’t think e-readers are in too much danger. I believe people will use their standard or tablet PCs to browse the web, do their work, and play games and when they’re finished they’ll curl up on the couch with their e-reader to finish that latest mystery novel they ordered from Amazon.
David Kaplan
http://www.davidkaplandesign.com/
sarah Said,
January 29, 2010 @ 02:47
I agree with the first commenter. This doesn’t use eInk or anything in particular to make it a nice eReader. I’d far rather use a Kindle or Nook.
I plan on getting one for my father when it comes out – but it’ll be so he can watch movies while I’m driving, not as an eReader.