The Year of the E-Reader

E-Book Reader

The first commercially successful E-book reader (E-Reader) was launched in 2007. The Amazon Kindle sold out in just over 5 hours and had only limited availability for the next 5 months. The market continues to be strong, and this holiday season looks to be very successful for these devices.

Other than for testing, I have yet to use a dedicated reader, but my iPod Touch works amazingly well. I read a couple of books a month and I do most of my reading in bed after the lights are out, but you won’t hear any page turning, and the amount of light that the iPod gives off doesn’t seem to bother my wife. I initially thought that the small format and page size would make it difficult to use, but I don’t notice those things at all while reading.

I would recommend that if you are considering buying a E-Reader, that you test out many different models since the features and overall feel can be very different.

Here’s a rundown on some of the current devices as well as a couple that are in the works:

• Kindle – 6″ diag display, available through Amazon for $259
• Kindle DX – 9.7″ diag display, available through Amazon for $489
• Nook – 6″ diag display with 3.5″ touch screen color control display, will be available through Barnes and Noble for $259 in November
• Kindle for iPhone and iPod Touch – Free application available through the Apple App store that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into E-Readers
• Plastic Logic Que – overall size 8.5″x11″ and just 1/3″ thick. Price not announced for a projected January availability
• Spring Design Alex – Dual screen, based on the new Google Android operating system, but no other specs are available.
• iRex DR800SG – 8″ diag display, available in November for $399
• Sony Reader Daily – 7″ diag display, available in December for $399
• Sony Reader Touch – 6″ diag display, available for $299
• Sony Reader Pocket – 5″ diag display, available for $199

Computer makers MSI and ASUS also have E-Readers in the works.

Technologizer.com has a very good breakdown on E-Readers and this article provides links to additional information.

Wikipedia has a good list of pros and cons about E-Readers, and I’ve summarized the major points here:

Advantages:

• An e-book can be purchased, downloaded and used immediately.
• More than 2 million free books available for download as of August 2009.
• Educational text books (e-textbooks) can be distributed at a lower cost than print versions per student.
• Second generation e-books (and color e-readers) have motion capability.
• E-Books can be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on demand book printers.
• Text can be searched automatically and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.
• A single E-Reader containing several books is easier to carry around (less weight and volume) than the same books (or sometimes even a single book) in printed form. Even hundreds or thousands of books may be stored on the same device. Using removable media even more can be carried around easily.
• E-books can allow non-permanent highlighting and annotation.
• Font size and font face can be adjusted.
• E-books may allow animated images or multimedia clips to be embedded.
• E-books allow for greater fidelity in color reproduction compared to CMYK color printing (although most e-book readers have only monochrome displays).
• Depending on the device an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. For devices for which this applies, energy consumption for reading without daylight is less than that of a lamp needed for reading a printed book.
• An e-book can automatically open at the last read page.
• While an e-book reader costs much more than one book, the electronic texts are generally cheaper. Moreover, a great share of books are available free of charge. For example, all fiction from before the year 1900 is in the public domain.
• Text-to-speech software can be used to read the text. However, the voice will be auto-generated, thus the quality worse than audiobooks.
• An e-book can be offered indefinitely, without ever going “out of print”.
• Depending on possible digital rights management, it may be easy and cheap to produce a back-up for the case that the e-book is lost or damaged, and/or it may be possible to get a free new copy if that happens.
• It is easier for authors to self-publish e-books.
• The production of e-books does not consume paper, ink, etc. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce.

Disadvantages

• Reading e-books requires an electronic device and software. Even in the case of reading it on a personal computer one already has, it may require additional software.
• A small paperback is easier to carry around than a typical e-book reader.
• E-book readers require electrical power; in the case of mobile use, the battery can get exhausted.
• E-book readers are more susceptible to drop damage.
• E-book readers can malfunction and e-books can be damaged due to faults in hardware or software.
• E-book readers are more likely to be stolen than paper books.
• Depending on the device an e-book may be difficult to read in bright sunlight.
• Most publishers don’t produce the e-book equivalent of their printed books. In other cases the product quality is lower or it is released later.
• E-books can be easily hacked through the use of hardware or software modifications and widely disseminated on the Internet and/or other e-book readers, without approval from the author or publisher. This ease of piracy is a significant drawback for publishers.
• If an e-book device is stolen, lost, or broken beyond repair, all e-books stored on the device may be lost (Although this may be avoided by backups either on another device or by the e-book provider).
• There is a loss of tactility and aesthetics of book-bindings. Also lost is the ability to very quickly riffle through the pages to search for a particular section or to get a sense of the book merely by sight.
• Screen resolution of reading devices is currently lower than actual paper.
• Due to the digital rights management, customers cannot resell or loan their e-books to other readers.
• Some books available as e-book cannot be read on some e-book readers because they are not supplied in a format those readers allow.
• While printed books remain readable for ages, changing technologies and less durable electronic storage media require e-books to be copied to a new carrier after some years.
• E-book readers require various substances to produce, and are an environmental hazard as they’re non-biodegradable.
• Physical discomfort for some users, including eye strain.
• More expensive, compared to used books.
• One will never read thousands of books really well or over a short period of time, so the high amount held on an ebook reader becomes irrelevant (Though it might be useful if the ebook is used as a reference library).
• A book is safe from electromagnetic pulses and overloads.

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