Chamber Four

While I have high hopes for the successful future of ebooks and confidence in the Great Reader Adoption actually occurring, I have had very little exposure to the current generation of ereaders themselves. Most of my ebook consumption occurs on my computer and my iPhone in small bites (I’m smitten with Stanza, but long reading sessions on either screen prove uncomfortable, especially after spending the work day staring at a computer). So I borrowed a BeBook and took it with me on a recent Fung Wah adventure to NY. Nico’s already done a good job of breaking down the good, the bad, and the ugly with the BeBook, so I’m not going to do they same, and he’s also put forth that reading on an ereader is better than reading a paper book. I don’t agree with him entirely on that point, but I’d like to share my impressions as someone who recently lost his ereader cherry.

Now, I’ll admit I’ve been dragging my heels a little about trying out ereaders. A large part of me doesn’t want to like them. I’m one of those people who likes to hold a book, smell the paper, jot in the margins, admire my overflowing bookshelf. I hold a weird reverence for books like they were trophies or war medals; I keep care of dust jackets like they were Mickey Mantle cards; and I take offense if I see someone dogear a page–they better hope it wasn’t a page of one of my books! However, I am still eager to see publishing march boldly into the digital age, because it will bring so much good with it, namely in instant accessibility of different books. Indie publishers will have more clout, and reading a sample paragraph from some book you might never have noticed in a bookstore will be as simple as a click on a blog or review site.

Books: Read Whatever Whenever

Unlike the 8-track and Betamax, the book will never become an obsolete format. No matter what any idiot anybody says, this is true. Music and video might, but publishing will never move to a 100% digital delivery mode. It just won’t happen. However, digital delivery will likely become the preferred and even primary modus operandi for publishing companies, as it already has for music and quickly is for video. The reasons for this are different though. Consumer demand won’t force the industry’s hand, floundering bottom lines will. Stocking every Borders, Wal-Mart and airport bookstore around the country hardcovers is damn expensive. Bandwidth for distributing the files digitally doesn’t even compare. The trouble for them is, unlike music and video, an expensive gadget isn’t necessary to bring a book with you whenever you go, and no matter how cool the ereader is, this will always be the case.

The Great eReader Adoption will happen with hybrid devices that aren’t soley dedicated to books and newspapers. The simple fact is people don’t need another to device to lug around along with their laptop, smartphone, and perhaps mp3 player. The most likely scenario is that a multipurpose device somewhere between a netbook and an eReader will emerge. It will be affordable and used for basic communications tasks such as email, and accessing blogs and newspapers, as well as ebooks. It will also be able to handle basic documents. Laptops are already losing ground to netbooks, and ubiquitous smartphones will never get to the point of functionality where we are doing more than very basic word processing on them, if that. Once something like this becomes a stable of students and business travelers, the publishing houses will see a leap in their digital sales, and things will expand from there. Technology is a little behind on this, and I think the key will be affordable, color electronic ink.

Try eInk and you'll be surprised just how different it is from LCD screens.

eInk, I can attest from my BeBook trial, is awesome. You really won’t understand until you take it for a spin, and I highly recommend that you do so. Seeing it in pictures or over someone’s shoulder is deceiving: it looks like the dot matrix screens from the original Gameboys at a quick glance. However, when you sit down and read it, it is surprising comfortable on the eyes. As comfortable as if you were reading real ink on paper. The constantly changing light on my bus trip really illustrated this for me, and coupled with the ease of holding the lightweight device and not having to readjust so often in the relatively cramped seat (as I usually do when holding a hardcover on such trips), made for a very pleasant bus ride–aside from having to smell the unwashed fellow next to me. This was a short trip, but if it were a longer one, say spanning a few flights and layovers, I’m sure I’d be real glad not to have a backpack full of heavy books as well.

eInk is also consumes next to no power. I used the BeBook for approximately 9-10 hours over the weekend excursion, and not a single notch disappeared from the battery meter. And since power is only consumed when the screen refreshes (such as a page turn) there is no need to wait for startup loading. The advantages this holds for devices such as I predict above are obvious.

I think we’ll see digital delivery of books approach becoming the standard beginning with a supplemental approach. As ebooks rise in popularity, consumer demand will drag the prices down from the stratosphere. The fact that many now cost more than hardcovers is ludicrous, and will inevitably change. Much like the Fox/Apple Digital Copy, publishers will be able to use the digital files as a packaged deal with popular books (at practically no additional cost–they’d have to figure out the means of delivery of course, it would probably have to be done via the retailer). This will help them establish a digital consumer base and ease into a lower cost digital standard that their bottom lines would undoubtedly prefer. It will also encourage holdout to buy a ereader device. Let’s just hope they do it without DRM.

The supplemental bit is key here. I absolutely loved having the BeBook with me on my bus trip. Yet, when I got home from the weekend excursion, I went straight to the couch and read a paper book. For me, the advantages of the ereader are situation specific. When I’m lying in bed, a (-n analog? I don’t think we’re there yet) book is just as good for me as it has been for readers for centuries. I imagine the average reader of today feels the same.