From paper to pixels: the arrival of the e-reader
Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, once said: "Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book." For some, the pleasure of flipping through a paperback may never change, but pragmatism is starting to take hold. More people than ever are opting for e-books; the benefits of having a virtual library in your pocket outweigh the nostalgia for physical books. And although modern e-readers have been around in some form or another for over two decades, the evolution and adoption process has been a long and complex one. Join us as we take a look at some of the key moments in the e-reader's history.
In 1971, Michael Hart was awarded with $100 million worth of computing time on the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois. Looking for a valuable way to use this windfall of access, Hart proceeded to transcribe the Declaration of Independence and tried to send it to all the users on the network. Dissuaded from this spam-like maneuver by his associates, he focused his efforts on posting these "eTexts" so they would be available to all. Project Gutenberg and the e-book were born.
Photo: Michael Hart (left) shown with Gregory Newby, the current CEO of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF).
[Image: Project Gutenberg]
Reading a book on your computer screen was fine, but the idea of having a portable library in your pocket was even more appealing. Sony made some moves in the right direction in 1991 when it released its Data Discman in the US. It was a roughly 2-pound portable about the size of a chunky paperback and had a 3.5-inch screen. The device came bundled with a selection of disks including an encyclopedia, a health guide and one for translation, with each one capable of storing up to 100,000 pages of text or 32,000 graphic images.
The hardware itself wasn't cheap, costing around $550, and additional disks were $20 to $50 a pop. While it found some success in Japan, the product failed to catch on in the US.
The long-awaited electronic reader finally hit the market in 1998. Only a few actual devices (along with several concepts) appeared and they hoped to bring the e-book to the masses. That year, NuvoMedia launched its Rocket eBook (or Rocketbook) with a little financial help from Barnes & Noble, one of its main investors. It vaguely resembled an actual paperback, measuring five inches wide by 7.5 inches high and 1.5 inches thick. Battery life was rated at anywhere from 17 to 33 hours on a charge and storage capacity ranged from 4,000 pages of text up to 16,000 (with the Pro model). There was even a backlit monochrome LCD display.
Books could be downloaded from the Barnes & Noble or Powell's Bookstore websites and loaded onto the device from a computer using the Rocket eBook Cradle. You could even convert HTML web pages to text and load them onto the device, one of the open aspects of the Rocket Librarian software.
One of the Rocketbook's main competitors in 1998 was the SoftBook. Designed by the thoughtful teams at IDEO, this model had a leather cover to emulate the feel of a real book. It also dwarfed the Rocket's storage capabilities, holding up to 100,000 pages of content -- not surprising considering its bulk. It was 8.75 inches wide, 10.5 inches high and 1.25 inches deep. The SoftBook had its own industry supporters like Random House, which helped populate the SoftBook Network content-delivery service. You didn't even need a computer to download books, since the device had a built-in internet connection.
All those features came at a price though, with the device costing $600 -- or $300 if you opted in for the $20/month content program.
While stand-alone e-readers were just entering the market, some PDAs were already capable tools for consuming text. Peanut Press, an early e-book publisher, made it possible for Palm Pilot users to purchase a limited range of new releases as early as 1998 for about $5 a piece.
[Image: Channel R at en.wikipedia]
While most devices were being developed for the consumer market, there was also commercial research into variations on the e-book theme. A Fuji Xerox-owned Palo Alto research facility called FXPAL had a physical/digital documents project that focused on annotation.
Under the direction of principle investigator Gene Golovchinsky, the team developed the XLibris active reading device. It offered more than just passive reading and Graffiti-style character recognition with its stylus. This project delivered a fluid way to interact with documents, giving users the ability to make handwritten notes right on the page -- something Sony would later emulate.
[Image: FXPAL]
A key player in the success of the 1998 Rocket eBook was the Franklin Electronic Publishers company. Its distribution method managed to get tons of Rocket eBooks out on the streets and into the hands of consumers -- at a time when e-readers were still a tough sell. After that relative success, it decided to launch its own hardware called the eBookMan. It had learned a few valuable lessons about what customers wanted along the way and even adopted a more PDA-like stance in its design and features.
The eBookMan had expandable onboard RAM through the use of multimedia cards (MMC) and also included audio playback. The software was flexible as well, letting users install additional reading programs beyond its own proprietary Franklin Reader.
There were some definite growing pains in the e-book market since its arrival in 1998. Companies tried, failed and changed hands quite a bit over the years. Gemstar -- which had recently acquired TV Guide Inc. -- bought both NuvoMedia and SoftBook Press. They continued to produce the devices for several years, retaining most of the original features (and pricing) of both.
In 2004, an e-book distribution company called Fictionwise took the reins from Gemstar and released a product called the eBookwise reader. The 5.5-inch grayscale LCD may have been unimpressive, but it remained on the market for almost six more years, with an affordable $100 price tag.
With notable tablet-like exceptions, most e-readers today are known for their E Ink displays. It's the technology that replicates the easy-on-the-eyes appearance of the true printed page -- even in bright sunlight. The first consumer e-reader application of that technology was in Sony's Japan-only LIBRIe reader in 2004.
As for content, Sony had tried a loan-distribution model for its e-books. This ephemeral method of loaning out e-books for cash, though, wasn't popular with consumers.
Sony continued its foray into e-readers in 2006 with the US launch of its Sony Reader (PRS-500). It learned its lesson with the old e-book loan program and instead operated its own online store and proprietary format for e-books.
Unfortunately, Sony suffered a series of delays and missed its initial launch date for the device by several months, giving potential customers time to consider some of the other options on the horizon.
Amazon, already an online distribution powerhouse in 2007, had decided that it wanted into the e-book business. The technology had arrived and the format had matured to the point where e-books were actually a plausible and convenient alternative. The company launched its flagship Amazon Kindle e-reader in November that year and the timing was right. The device sold out online within five and a half hours of the launch, but unlike the delays that Sony had suffered, it claimed restocks would be available within a week.
The sales giant also had a trick up its sleeve: These e-readers included over-the-air book downloads from its own Kindle Store, making it easier than ever for people to make impulse book purchases.
Barnes & Noble had its hands in the e-book biz since the beginning, with its support of the Rocket eBook back in 1998, so it's not surprising that the brick-and-mortar book giant would try its hand at hardware.
In 2009, the company announced its Nook e-reader only a few months after it acquired the Fictionwise e-book-distribution platform. This reader was unique in that it was based on the Android OS and had two screens: a color touchscreen placed just below a 6-inch E Ink display. It had WiFi and free AT&T 3G connectivity to help consumers locate their next novel in its digital store.
In 2010, the same year the iPad was launched, Barnes & Noble decided to brighten up the e-reader experience with the Nook Color. It went for a single touchscreen display over its predecessor's split personality and was well-suited for both audio and video.
Kobo joined the e-book arena around 2010 and with heavy hitters like Amazon and Barnes & Noble as its prime competitors, it tried an aggressive pricing scheme to gain ground. The Canadian-based company's first device was called the eReader and appeared similar to the competition in many respects, but one major failing was the lack of WiFi or 3G connectivity. That was soon remedied with a revamped version that arrived later in the year.
In 2011, Kobo was acquired by Rakuten, a massive Japanese e-commerce company, helping this new kid on the block expand its business even further.
Amazon updated its e-reader stable in 2011, with some full-color media-consumption oomph of its own. The new device was called the Kindle Fire and it included a full-color touchscreen and an operating system heavily geared toward content from the Amazon Appstore.
While Sony has moved on to more technical aims in the e-book genre, Barnes & Noble has chosen to focus on content distribution, leaving its new partner Samsung to handle the hardware on its new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. Amazon has upped its own e-reader game recently with the upcoming, high-end $200 Kindle Voyage.
Dedicated e-readers are still competing for their place in the market, but now the competition is with other all-purpose devices. Ironically, the unique aspects of electronic paper -- an e-reader's primary connection to the physical printed page -- may be one of the few things keeping it afloat in a world of tablets and smartphones.