The development of e-readers.
E-readers have made a rapid development in the past couple of months. It all began with Amazon's Kindle. At first people stated that it could never be a success, however with the big publishers on Amazon's side it became a success. Now many electronics manufacturers have picked up this idea and produce their own e-readers with the main focus on reading books. But in this technological era the question should people expect more from their e-readers.To fully understand what is being meant with an e-reader, I have done some research. An e-reader or electronic book reader has been defined by Lemken (1999) as "Mobile, physical device to display electronic (i.e. digital) documents".
In today's market this can be divided into three categories (Wilson, 2001):
- Dedicated e-book readers
- PDA and Pocket PC's
- Hybrid devices.
A new development in the world of e-readers is the announcement of the apple iPad. For those who are not familiar with this new hardware a short explanation.
The apple iPad is the newest addition to Apple’s handheld family. Simply said it is a big iPod touch without the ability to multitask. The iPad is specifically designed as an e-reader with extended user functions (a hybrid device) e.g. listening to music, surf the web and watching digital content. The iPad wants to fill the gap in today’s market, between a smartphone which is limited for full office usage and a netbook, which can only be used in the office/home and always requires extra things for maximum usage like a mouse and adapters. Therefore the tablet pc’s should fill that gap by making it easy to carry all your wok with you, without having to look for a electric socket for example.
So the question is: is the iPad a real competitor or not. For this question I have spend much time looking at many forums on the internet. An important factor was the type of forum. In the Microsoft forums no one was positive about the iPad mostly because it doesn’t run a software system from Microsoft and it couldn't multitask. At the apple forums most people were positive but there were also people who had the same issues that could be seen at the Microsoft forums.
What did people expect?
A big disappointment overall was the fact that the iPad can’t multitask. To put it more simple: you can’t browse the web and make notes at the same time. Which is a big disadvantage for a device which is build with for full media experience. Another important factor was that users expected that the iPad could be integrated in their work environment, for different applications are available to make slideshows edit digital documents. But because there is no camera onboard people can’t make a videoconferencing call which is a big factor why people won’t buy the iPad. A good thing Apple has done is using a touch screen which reduces size and weight on the device. (More on this in the next blog)
The iPad is directed at the consumers from a digital book point of view, apple recently announced the iBooks store. By launching this store people are not dependent on shops like Barnes and Nobles or Amazon and the prices of books will be competitive.
What other alternatives are there?
Many electronic manufacturers are announcing tablet pc’s which closes the gap between a dedicated e-reader a multimedia device and a notebook. HP announced just before apple’s iPad launch, that they are releasing a tablet which runs on Windows 7. A completely different kind of ‘tablet’ is Microsoft’s courier although it is more directed at the business consumer and has an actual book interface by combining two screens in a single device.
What could be a turning point.
From a consumer’s point of view, there are different critical factors for the tablet pc’s.
The device should have a touchscreen
The device should have a camera on-board (5mp or more)
It should be capable of multitasking
Long battery life
Wifi/3g connections
The price should be reasonable
The available applications
It should support many file formats
The future
The future of e-readers and similar products do not only depend on the hardware, it is also dependent on the publishers. For the same mistakes are being made which were made with the .mp3 and their players. Which was noted by Susan Piver: 'publishers are reacting to e-books and file-sharing in much the same ways as the music industry reacted to digital music ten years earlier.' Although Microsoft's vision is still with the usage of a stylus pen. Which, if being looked at the past, has not been a great idea and should only be used in a graphical environment.
Extras, Links and Sources
Apple iPad Launch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eVCFXxgn2M
Microsoft Courier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI
http://www.teleread.org/2010/02/11/susan-piver-publishing-industry-repeating-mistakes-of-music-industry/
Lemken, B. (1999). E-book: the missing link between paper and screen. Pittsburgh, PA, May 1999.
Wilson, R. & Landoni, M. (2003). Evaluating the usability of portable electronic books. Melbourne,Florida, USA.
