Amazon Kindle is a boon to e-book market, all $0.12 of it
By Paul Miller 
posted April 4th 2008 10:02AM
posted April 4th 2008 10:02AM
posted April 4th 2008 10:02AM
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seriously? have you SEEN these E-ink displays people? Are you REALLY going to read an entire novel on a tiny backlit LCD? Further, kindle has a very nice integrated "e-store" and by far the best selection of books.
-d
Yes this can happen.
Tonight when you sleep Engadget will download all of your class material directly to your brain.
Oh wait...
Are you TRYING to get a degree in IPHONE technology?
Sorry, thats all we have...
Excellent point, Anthony. I think books actually are the model for a chunk of license agreements.
A way for ebooks to succeed is to target a narrow market where people have to have a bunch of books on hand, and physical books are just too much. Reading for fun isn't this market. The two markets that come to mind are, any technical profession that requires a lot of reference books, and of course, education.
The textbook market is a big scam where the content providers have a lock on the market, resulting in $100 textbooks that kids have to lug around and yet use a fraction of. Clear win for ebooks, but someone would have to create a whole range of educator-certified content (sorry, Wiki) since there's no way in hell McGraw-Hill would give up their paper-based cash cow. They have a limited selection of ebooks that lock you to one computer using Acrobat, or online, for half the price... which is still pretty ridiculous.
A company that makes a vertical system of ebook reader and textbooks to go on them could forge deals with school systems that replace backpacks filled with $300 (every semester!) worth of books with say, a $300 reader and a 4-year lease on educational content (and free automatic updates - none of this 6th edition crap). The kids could keep the readers beyond school to spread their usage. McGraw-Hill, meet Britannica.
Well, the problem with e-books for me is that I already stare at CRT's and LCD's all day, so when I want to read a book, it's got to be paper. However, the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader have really caught my attention because they LOOK like paper (or at least they look physically printed, not like a screen). It's definitely a lot easier on the eyes. And even though I could read a book on my PDA, PSP, or phone, I don't like the small size (nor reading a screen, as previously stated). These readers' screens are a pretty decent size (about pocketbook page size) but could stand to be a bit bigger (at least manga size).
I want to see devices like this replacing schoolbooks. Kids spend loads of money on gigantic books and kill their backs lugging them around all the time, plus the books seem like they get outdated every other year. A better system would be for them all to have some sort of reader which the school could just transfer the appropriate reading material to. It's just such a wasteful and archaic system.
@ Lars
Most of the text books kids use need to be large screen, to hold all the text, formulas, diagrams, etc., making the format rather difficult, and also, they would need to be in full colour. So, it will be a long, long.... long time before textbooks are replaced.
Why can't i properly reply to someone? Fix your fricken comment system.
Apparently you haven't used the ebook application for jailbroken iPhones. It's got a great anti-aliased serif font, very readable. Granted, it's lacking basic features such as bookmarking and annotation, but I'm sure such things are coming to those who need them. In the mean time, it's much more readable than my old Treo 650, and scrolling is natural, almost like turning a page in a paper book.
I've used it. It's still hard on the eyes. Any of the eInk readers are definately the way to go because it is just like reading a paper based book. Much better on your eyes. I plan on getting the Cybook 3 (www.bookeen.com) because it supports in addition to it's own fromat html, pdf, text and the Mobibook version of the Palm format ".pdb". All of which you can find litteraly 100's of thousands of books in on newsgroups etc. Frankly it supprizes me that eBooks haven't caught on more. I'm by no means a heavy reader (only 3 to 5 books a week) but I've used palm's, cell phones etc. for reading exclusively since the the first palm came out and on paper based books in that time at all and I would never go back to paper because of the conveiniance inherant in haveing several 100's of books along at all times.
Ok my previous comment was @nathan.wong. Reply is broken again?
ROFL, you know a joke gets old when it appears in a post or a picture in the post.
You've never seen an E-ink screen in person, have you?
...Stupid reply system.
I love the look & feel of my Sony Reader much more than what the Kindle looks like. But 30k books v 100k is a huge difference.
My opinion, however, is that unless Amazon secures exclusives these companies could easily come over to Sony. All you have to do is run their file through the DRM conditioner (or whatever it's called) & have a Sony file.
Working in the publishing industry I can say that exclusives are rare & generally don't benefit the publisher because it limits sales outlets. What would you rather have 10 people promoting or making available your book or 1? Now if kickbacks (ala Blu-Ray) were involved that's another offset. I doubt that's the case since sales are so minimal @ this point.
Now Sony may not pursue it unless sales dictate profit potential.
@Mugsy
Thats exactly what I was thinking. I have 5 600+ pages to read of training manuals and I just started a MBA program with rediculous amounts to read. I could use instant knowledge of Kung-Fu, .Net, and Business Management.
If anyone is wondering why the ebook market is so small - it could have something to do with the ridiculous cost of these devices.
For something that has less functionality than a $60 palm pilot and a screen that we were promised would be "cheaper than existing technology" 5 years ago, it baffles the mind how the $400-$500 price points are justified.
When these things hit sub-$100 price levels, we're going to see not only the ebook market take off, but the publishing industry is going to get a boost as a whole.
The high price of eReaders and of the eBooks themselves has to be a big inhibitor of the market. I think the eReader price factor can be eliminated, but even if it is will the publishers come to the party?
Some in this thread and else where seem to hold that the cell phone everyone already paid for *cannot* be an eReader because the screen *would* be to small / bright / lcd / battery sucking / ... The obvious thing to do is to find a book you know you would find a compelling read and try it on your cell phone - I know that for me the worst thing about books in phones is that publishers really aren't selling them. http://www.booksinmyphone.com give away PD and CC books packaged for the phone. If you have internet connectivity on your cell getting a book is a point and click process, otherwise you have to be bale to transfer from a PC.
Imagine the eReader was free, that still leaves the pricing. Amazon sells public domain classics for $1.00 and often an eBook can be more expensive than paper. What are the marginal costs for producing a eBook version (pretty small I'd bet), publicity is already taken care of for the paper version, how much does it cost to push 1MB over the air? Why are the costs so high?