Ebook Readers
| The PC as Ebook Reader | ||
| Dedicated Hand-Held Readers | ||
| The Rocket Ebook | ||
| SoftBook Reader | ||
| Others | ||
| Multifunction Readers | ||
The idea of the ebook reader has been around at least since the original Star Trek. Its potential utility has always been evident: an ebook reader could hold the texts of dozens or hundreds of books in its memory, all of them instantly accessible, and it could provide for all kinds of text searching and manipulation features, just like word-processing programs.
The technology to create at least a crude ebook has existed for years. Why, then, have viable e-book readers only emerged very recently, and why isn't the demand for them stronger?
First and foremost, the ebook is going up against one of the most perfect and entrenched technologies in human history. The paper book is inexpensive, portable, durable, and possessed of a transparent interface.
Second, books are much more than a technology. They have a heft, a feel, even a scent that are deeply etched in our psyches from a very early age. Books are associated with exploration, discovery, and intellectual freedom, and such have a powerful resonance in our minds and hearts. Even though we as readers are moved by the words and images within the book, our affection and reverence inevitably embrace the book itself.
Manufacturers of ebook readers thus have the unenviable task of replacing a beloved and nearly perfect medium.
Leaving aside those book genres that have made a natural transition to the desktop computer (e.g., technical manuals, directories, encyclopedias), it is safe to say that PCs as ebook readers have not been a raging success. Reading more than a few pages of text on a computer screen is simply not a pleasant experience. Nonetheless, people do it, and software companies are trying to help.
There are two main types of ebook reader software. The older and still dominant one is based on Adobe's PDF (Portable Document Format) file format, and requires the Acrobat Acrobat Reader application, which is free. PDF files look the same onscreen as they do printed. Fatbrain's eMatter as well as many other "electronic publishers" use PDF.
The newer is based on HTML or XML (HyperText Markup Language and eXtensible Markup Language, the building blocks of the Web). Rocket Editions (viewed on NuvoMedia's Rocket Ebook), files for next year's Microsoft Reader, and even files designed to be read on the Palm Pilot are all based on HTML or XML.
However, it has long been clear to ebook proponents that any viable rival to the printed book must compete with the latter on its own terms. This is why all eyes are on the growing competition in hand-held readers.
To be a viable alternative to a book, hand-held readers should:
- be light, comfortable to hold, and rugged
- be easy on the eyes
- have a long battery life
- have intuitive navigation controls
- offer desirable features that books do not
- be relatively inexpensive
As of early 2000, there are two credible, dedicated, hand-held ebook readers on the market: NuvoMedia's Rocket Ebook, and SoftBook Press' SoftBook Reader. Marketing strategies have diverged significantly, with NuvoMedia focusing on consumers and SoftBook on business users. Questions about the viability of these two young companies and whether they competed directly were in some measure resolved on January 18th 2000, when it was announced that Gemstar, a large technology company known mainly for developing and licensing "VCR Plus" and its pending merger with TV Guide, bought both of them.
The Rocket Ebook is a little smaller and a little heavier than a trade paperback. The postcard-size LCD screen displays black-and-white text and images at a resolution of 106 dots per inch, which is far from the ideal 300 dpi, but is still comfortable to read. It has high contrast and a wide viewing angle. Battery life is advertised to be 20 hours with the backlight on, and 40 hours with the backlight off. The navigation controls are easy to use and relatively book-like (e.g., the screen is stylus- or finger-operable; you "turn" pages rather than scroll; sections can be underlined, annotated, and bookmarked; etc.).
The Rocket Ebook also offers a number of desirable features that books do not:
- A capacity of 4,000 pages of text and images, upgradeable to almost ten times as much (though the number of pages is heavily affected by the number and type of images).
- Search capabilities
- A built-in dictionary
- A backlight that allows reading in the dark
- Scalable fonts
- Changeable text orientation
- Speech-quality audio capability
The SoftBook Reader, with its leather cover, is closer to the size of trade hardback, or a slim notebook computer. It weighs twice as much as a Rocket Ebook. These factors plus the location of the page-turning toggle make reading a two-handed or one-hand-and-lap affair. On the other hand, it offers a larger screen (roughly twice the size of the Rocket's), which is backlit, grayscale (offering finer presentation of images than black-and-white), touch-sensitive, and has direct brightness and contrast controls. A pleasant reading experience, though the battery must be recharged after 5 hours. Like the Rocket Ebook, the SoftBook Reader has intuitive, book-inspired navigation, with underlining, annotation, bookmarking, etc. Unlike the Rocket Ebook, the Softbook allows handwritten annotations, and extra blank pages for notes can be inserted anywhere.
The SoftBook Reader also has a number of desirable features that printed books do not:
- A capacity of 5000 pages of text and graphics, expandable to 50,000.
- Search and hyperlinking capabilities.
- A backlight that allows reading in the dark
As of early 2000, over 1500 SoftBook Reader titles were available, 100 of them free. Magazines and newspapers (such as Time, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal) are available.
Several hardware players have dropped out of the race, such as GemBook and Librius. The most prominent remaining ebook reader manufacturer (which, however, has yet to ship as of early 2000) takes a completely different approach. Everybook, Inc. is promising a device with two opposing, full color, 300 dpi, 8" x 11" screens. Expected retail price: $1600. At nearly four pounds and roughly the size of a laptop computer, the device clearly makes few compromises in its focus on visual fidelity. Further description and discussion will have to wait until the product becomes available.
As though competition with the paper book weren't enough, ebook reader manufacturers must contend with another class of competition. Millions of Palm Pilots, Handspring Visors, and Windows CE devices (collectively, PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants) are already in the hands of consumers, and most of them can display ebooks.
The most prominent purveyor of ebooks in Palm OS or Windows CE-compatible format is Peanut Press. Priced between $2 and $15 and formatted in a proprietary "Peanut Markup Language" (PML), Peanut Press ebooks are purchased from their web site (there are a few free titles as well), stored on a PC, and copied to the device.
One obvious drawback to PDAs is the small size of their screens--though it remains to be seen how decisive this factor will be among ebook consumers. Otherwise, the case for PDAs is compelling. They are relatively inexpensive and, unlike dedicated readers, are already familiar to millions of consumers. Furthermore, with cell phones being integrated with PDAs, which themselves are increasingly enabled to browse the Web, consumers are likely to begin demanding all-in-one devices. It is quite probable that the ebook reader of the future will also be a cell phone, organizer, web browser, nail trimmer, garage-door opener, etc.
Thus manufacturers are converging from both directions: makers of dedicated ebook readers, responding to the PDA threat, are moving to incorporate organizers and other PDA-type functionality in future products, and makers of PDAs are starting to market their products as ebook readers.