Comments on: The e-book field needs more innovation, not less: CES counterpoint

By: Edward Nawotka

Edward Nawotka — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:49:27 +0000

I just want to say thanks to all those who took the time to read the editorial I wrote on PublishingPerspectives.com yesterday. Anyone who knows me understands that I am as much of a “gadget guy” as anyone and often an early adopter, so the only thing I’d like to add is that Evan’s suggestion that in my article he “heard a plea for no more innovation in the field” is not in fact the case. I am very much looking forward to better and more user-friendly reading devices. But I simply believe that innovation in e-readers is not going to lead to revolution in reading. The more you add HD video/live chat to a “book,” the further you’re getting away from the experience of “reading” and turning into something different. Perhaps what we’re currently lacking is a word for it — we don’t say we “read” the internet per se, we “surf” it — and some books are eventually going to morph into something that looks more like the internet and not a book. What we need, I think, is a new vocabulary for these new devices and the new content that will take advantage of them. The term e-reader is simply a term of convenience, and quite soon, with the multiple capacities that the new devices will be capable of, it is likely to become a misleading one.

By: Emily W.

Emily W. — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:05:19 +0000

I don’t think Ed was saying that there’s no need for innovation or improvement so much as that the publishing industry shouldn’t be holding its breath for the perfect reading gadget as if it were some kind of magic bullet. The changes going on in book publishing are as much structural as technological, and while there’s certainly the hope that the market in 2010 will diversify and competitors will appear to challenge Amazon’s apparent dominance in the growing sales of ebooks, no one doodad is likely to provide all the answers – even if Apple or someone else comes out with something truly amazing. As @Al points out, there are different markets for different kinds of reading experiences. The challenge for publishers going forward will be to meet all their readers, and potential readers, wherever they spend their time, and to provide books in whatever format – on paper or for any of the many competing gadgets – that they prefer.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:58:44 +0000

I have the equivalent of tabs on my Kindle in that the home page has the latest I have read at the top and one click on a tab will display that book right where I left off, just like a tabbed browser, it just doesn’t take up the screen space that a tabbed browser has because of the limited size screen. The FUNCTION is there however.

I can, however, envision an animation buried in a document that is much better than trying to explain how it works. A specific example is the Prius drive train with its epicyclic gears connected to the wheels, generator and engine all at once. Difficult to explain how that works, easy to see in the animation. Or how about acrobatic maneuvers in an airplane? Or a lot of other things I can think of.

I can remember reading a book on how to fly and pass the private pilot’s license. It was a programmed book, ideal for the computer or any device that can have embedded links like the readers. It displayed a paragraph, asked a question and branched to the answer you selected. If your answer was wrong it reinforced the paragraph with further explanation and gave you another series of answers to the test question. Perfect for a reader and it worked in paper, but awkwardly.

I would predict that we will have color, fast, low power readers in the very near future, certainly within 2 years.

By: Alexander Inglis

Alexander Inglis — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:54:18 +0000

There’s certainly room for innovation in e-readers but a tabbed view isn’t quite it. “Hardcore readers” — how’s that for a back-handed subtlety? — may indeed reader 5 or 6 books at once, but not flitting back and forth as one consults webpages. Those who pooh-pooh the current e-ink readers are missing the well-executed reading experience in a rush to add “features”. A hardcore reader might well appreciate better indexing of titles on the device, improved internal searching, finger-tip dictionary access and even wikipedia look-ups for “fact nugget surfing”.

One CES report gushed that readers will want HD video chat whilst devouring the latest Stephen King novel. Really? Ever tried reading the same book, page by page, as someone next to you? It’s painful since you’ll never stay in sync.

Another CES report showed what looked like a “heavy” device with two largish screens, the left side being B&W e-ink, the right side a full colour touch screen running Android. The whole thing folds up (closes) like a book. Are you really going to carry something like that to bed, to the bath, to the beach, on the commute?

What’s most likely will be a bifurcation of devices, one for simple, elegant, portable reading with improvements in basic display (colour no doubt) and ease of content management. The key is to meet the needs of the “passive” reader. The other device will “converge”, offering a single, not a dual screen, in some sort of compromise form factor between mass paperback and clipboard, that does a lot more — including academic oriented tasks like note taking — and offers full Internet, credible video and portability for active consumption and creation of content.

By: DJ

DJ — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:52:02 +0000

“But no current e-book reader of which I’m aware supports having multiple books open simultaneously.”

Au contraire: the eBookwise 1150 allows you to have two books open at once, and one tap of the stylus instantly flips between them.

By: Evan Leibovitch

Evan Leibovitch — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:15:19 +0000

@Chris: I actually researched the Gates quote for inclusion in my commentary. Apparently he never said it.
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Misattributed)
Now… Ken Olson, founder of DEC, saying in 1977 that “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home” … that one is accurate.

By: dowee

dowee — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:09:19 +0000

AFAIK, Johannes Gutenberg was more of an entepreneur, who funded his “research” on the printing press with selling polished metal mirrors for those Christians who wanted to catch the blessings better during religious ceremonies (predating DirectTV?); it was people like Manuccio who had both the technical skill and the cultural background, acting both as publisher and printing press master. From now on we’ll have to rely more on reading technology than before, and people like Bezos or Jobs might play the Gutenberg entepreneur during a transient period

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:50:33 +0000

Also, 640K of RAM is all the memory anyone’s PC will ever need. Just ask Bill Gates.