e-readers: Novel idea or rip-off?

03/02/2010

Some say there’s nothing wrong with paper, while others jump at the chance to use modern technology. So just what can e-readers do and will we all be eBaying our bookshelves in a few years time?

E-book readers use ultra low power consumption electronic ink technology so people can read digital books and papers without straining their eyes. With no back-light or glare, e-readers claim to give bookworms a real paperback experience with added benefits.

An e-reader’s biggest selling point is its ability to fit an entire library in your pocket. From Tolstoy to Cosmo, there’s a bank of reading material to suit your mood without carting round half a forest in your bag. Lighter than a book, Ulysses at least, some e-readers offer text re-sizing and read aloud functions, perfect for the visually impaired and those of us struggling with small print after a day in the office. Stuck in a traffic jam or delayed on the train and finished your book? No sweat; some e-readers allow you to download a new one so you can get stuck in, pronto.

A compelling case for any technophile but do you really need one? Champions of classic tomes argue paperbacks are readily available, cheap and cheerful, swappable, never run out of power and are more robust- just dry them on a radiator if you up-end your coffee at an exciting chapter! And then there’s the cost of an e-reader…

Amazon’s Kindle currently dominates the e-reader market and costs around $250. Although Amazon is keeping its success under wraps, it claims to have sole more e-books than physical books over Christmas and offers 400,000 books and 100 newspapers for the e-reader. Experts reckon the firm commands a 60% market share of e-readers in America.

Building on the success of the original Kindle e-reader, Amazon’s Kindle 2 has a 6 inch screen and memory holding 1,500 books. For newspaper junkies, Amazon unveiled its Kindle DX. Approximately twice the size of its successful sibling, it is designed for cumbersome broadsheets and with The Guardian’s editor predicting an ‘iPod moment’ for e-readers and the newspaper industry, could the DX be the saviour of ailing paper sales?

Eager to preserve its market share, Amazon will double authors’ and publishers’ royalties from 30 June this year to make Amazon their e-book provider of choice. Authors currently receive a measly 35% from most Amazon- sold e-books and the move should silence complaints that most profits go to the book behemoth. Amazon certainly seems to be throwing down the gauntlet to its competitors vying for a cut of the lucrative e-reader market.

However, entering the e-reader fray is Apple. To say its ‘tablet’ iPad was eagerly awaited is an understatement. Over half of the UK wanted one before knowing what it did! The iPad is not an e-reader as such although it can be used to read books, yet it offers much more; a good job as it costs three to five times as much as a Kindle.

Apple has launched its iBookstore – predictably a similar set up to iTunes, yet you can already get a Kindle application for your iPhone…so it’s hardly trailblazing, if a little confusing. While some experts doubt the iPad will be a Kindle killer, others think the next generation of e-readers will have to offer more than just, erm, books.

The iPad boasts a near 10 inch touch screen and is a little like a super-sized iPhone-come-netbook… but prettier. It is also ahead of the game on the e-reader front as it does have a sumptuous colour screen, but competitors will be quick to point out the display is not e-ink.

So what are the other options? The market is awash with e-readers, with manufacturers such as Sony predicting the market will grow. Allegedly only five million e-readers were sold globally last year yet the choice is overwhelming.

For techno-touting execs, Fujitsu has created the Flepia, which uses colour e-ink so you can look at graphs and news articles in all their Technicolor glory. But it doesn’t come cheap, retailing at $1,000 in Japan.

America’s largest book seller, Barnes & Noble has also bought out a Nook e-reader which uses Google Android’s operating system to support Android Apps and Wi-Fi. It has a separate 3.5 inch colour touch screen so readers can easily scroll through their library and view covers in colour. Expanding your virtual bookshelf to a library is also simple with a Micro SD expansion slot. Extolling one of the advantages of real paperbacks, the Nook allows you to lend friends with a Nook, iPhone, Blackberry, PC or Mac, books for up to 14 days using free eReader software.

With all the extras from a well known book firm, demand for the noble Nook has taken the company by surprise with many customers not getting their pre-ordered Nook on its release on 30 October last year. Despite the setback, demand is strong for the futuristic paperback.

Acer, purveyors of popular netbooks, expects to offer its first e-reader and app store this summer, while plucky Brit Plastic Logic has developed Que, an e-reader with wireless and 3G connectivity…but you’ll have to wait till it hits the market.

As the reading public is divided into technophiles excited by new reading machines and those who love sniffing old books, it seems a little premature to herald the end of the paperback era just yet. However, with so many multi-nationals jostling for position in the e-reader market it seems demand and the technology will grow and grow.

The question is, will the expansion be in the direction of single purpose, cheap and cheerful e-readers or in multi-function devises like the iPad? Only time will tell if the e-reader goes the same way as the Betamax and end up on the scrap heap of technology history.