Will eBook reader devices “Kindle” reader’s interest?
Thought Leadership | Hema Narayanan | June 15, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Will eBook reader devices “Kindle” the readers?
Kindle - the new device launched by Amazon is promising a newer “reading interface” for books in an electronic form. It is assuring that a reader will have a device in his palm that looks and reads like real paper, on a sharp and high-resolution screen.
Will this happen?
Will readers absorb e-Books to the extent that they move away from printed-books?
Will they want to stop going to major book stores and the spend hours of flipping through “physical pages” of the newly brought-in and crisp books?
Unsure.. yet, the idea of eBooks, the technologists say, is catching up; nevertheless will it truly replace the hard-core printed publication readers? It could be a gradual process, yet the readership of eBooks will increase with time, per the predictions.
I second the opinion of Marc Steuben in his post http://www.marcsteuben.com/articles.html, that this is a case of chicken and egg:
“Chickens and eggs: No one will buy a dedicated eBook reading device if there is nothing to read on it. Conversely, eBook titles won’t become widely available until people own eBook devices on which they want to read. This problem could resolve itself as the eBook industry and its patron’s inch up the ladder – titles slowly becoming more available while hardware gets incrementally better, until finally, in a decade or two, we have an active eBook market. Most of us hope things will happen more quickly – what’s needed is a revolution, not passive acceptance of a perpetual niche market. The best revolutions start at the grass-roots, so I decided that if people weren’t coming to eBooks, I’d bring eBooks to them” (Ref:)
The big battle has begun – who will emerge the highest eBook device seller?
The product companies certainly are making fast progress in bringing out gadgets that can enable such transformation! Analysts indicate that this space is becoming very crowded with companies trying in every way to capitalize on this trend that has dominated the tech news.
On one side of the spectrum, players are coming up with reader devices: Amazon with its Kindle, Sony with its PRS-500 and LIBRIe, iRex with its iLiad Reader, Cybook eBook device, Pepper Pad 3, Nuvomedia with its Rocket eBook (a short list can be seen at: http://www.ebook88.com/devices.html ). And the developers are only hoping that the consumers will grow at the same rapid pace as the development.
On the other side of the spectrum, Google is making plans to sell eBooks directly to users – a direct competition to Amazon.com. Earlier too, Google partnered with Sony and released public-domain eBooks. Google’s business model would permit publishers to set their prices, charge the same for digital editions, and also would be made available on any device that as internet access. Powerful model for sure, this is slated to be possible y end of 2009. Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, stated in The New York Times report, “We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any web-enabled device.”
The adoption of both the “devices” and “method of reading” can vary based on the geographies and the consumer reading habits. In western countries, this trend and technology will gain faster acceptance due to better infrastructure support like faster internet speed and easier access. In US Amazon’s Kindle, has already jumpstarted close to half a million eBook readers. However, in India, readers still thrives on picking up a “hard copy” of anything: be it a newspaper, a magazine or a book to quench their reading appetite. So it could be only a gradual adoption here. eBook reader devices have not even been launched in India yet, however going by the trend of mobile phone users, Indians may start using eBook readers sooner than later.
Time will tell if the new eBook reader devices really “Kindle” the interest of the readers globally…
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Tags: "Amazon Kindle", "eBook reader devices", "eBook Reader", eBooks, ePublishing
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