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Walt Mossberg and the ScrollMotion fallacy
January 17, 2009 | 10:10 am
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By Chris Meadows
In recent days, I have seen a number of stories on the web that share the same misapprehension—but one of the more blatant examples I have seen is in this Walt Mossberg column, “Shortcovers, Iceberg Put Latest e-Books On Your Cellphone” (My co-blogger David Rothman has a different bone to pick with this piece, but he didn’t touch upon mine so I feel free to cover it separately.)
Mossberg mentions the two best-known iPhone e-book applications, Stanza and eReader, and admits that, though they have “little in the way of fancy formatting,” they nonetheless work well and offer access to a large variety of e-book titles. But he goes on to add:
But, as with past cellphone or PDA e-book systems, most of those on the iPhone and Touch focus primarily on older, classic, or out-of-copyright titles, rather than on the sort of current, in-demand titles available on the Kindle. Some fresher titles are available, but the selection of popular books is relatively thin.
Now, two companies are launching new e-book apps that aim to bring current and popular titles from major publishers to the iPhone and Touch. And they add interesting features, including fancy formatting and community tools. I’ve been testing both.
Mossberg goes on to talk about the community-related features of Shortcovers, which is intended “to get people to discover new works.” These new features are interesting, but it is annoying that eReader and Stanza are not given more credit.
Fictionwise and eReader.com have been focusing on providing “current, in-demand titles” to PDAs, including iPhones, for ten years now—nine under separate ownership, and the last one together. Stanza has its own Fictionwise store, and has cut deals with a number of publishers to offer samples and books from them as well.
But they do not issue press releases touting the availability of their library of current titles as if no other current title provider exists, so they are pigeonholed with the public domain providers.
It is disappointing that so many news outlets seem to assume that, because Shortcovers and ScrollMotion are talking up their availability of “new” titles, the other e-book solutions on the market don’t have them.
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Comments:
Excellent points, Chris. Minor nit: I don’t think Stanza is suffering quite as much in the media as you believe, but eReader certainly is.
Could one reason be, at least in ScrollMotion’s case, that the company seems intent on gouging hardback-sized charges out of readers? That could well make some traditionalists in the media feel comfortable.
The people behind Stanza and eReader, by contrast, are hip to pricing and other nuances of E.
I don’t think Walt is quite there yet, even though he’s far ahead of most folks in the MSM.
Meanwhile thanks for a very useful post.
David
Well, it’s true those places have a selection…. but pretending that fictionwise or eReader have selections comparable to the Kindle is ridiculous. eReader and Fictionwise and other companies poor selections (and godawful prices) are the other prime reason (beside lack poor hardware options before the eInk readers) eBooks haven’t been much of a player until now.
I don’t have any ‘brand loyalty’ but Amazon has done a good job, a phenomenal job, compared to those other companies in terms of content. I’m glad there is some competition, but no one is competing in any real way yet. Even touting number of Stanza downloads doesn’t really mean anything. I have a copy myself and I use it about once every two months. And when I do it’s reference, not reading.
We have the same kind of problem in France. Last days, there were a lot of posts announcing the revolution of Shortcovers, that would “transform your iphone in ereader”, as if Stanza and eReader didn’t exist.
Furthermore, there will be no french ebooks on Shortcovers. Thanks to Feedbooks and Gutenberg Project, there are many of them on Stanza…
Gideon: …pretending that fictionwise or eReader have selections comparable to the Kindle is ridiculous.”
Heh. I’m unaware that Fictionwise/eReader has a “poor selection” of books to choose from, as I usually just browse their sites to find something interesting to read. I rarely come from the ‘outside’ to search for a particular book on their shelves.
I’ve been a mobile ebook reader for almost 10 years. For me, the most important thing is to be able to read almost anywhere. A dedicated reader would be nice, but I would only use it at home during long reading sessions. Outside of the house, I still want access to my ebooks, so they need to be formatted for whatever gadget I’m currently carrying. Right now, that is a Palm OS smartphone and an iPod touch. (It is rare that I carry 2 ‘main’ gadgets instead of 1.) Both have eReader programs, so I can read almost my entire ebook library on the go.
The problem I have with most ebooks that are sold from Apple’s App Store is that they are stand-alone apps – and/or made specifically for the iPhone/iPod touch. Most have their own icons, cutting down on the number of apps I can have on my touch. (I am a free- app addict and I like to carry a lot of ebooks with me.) Also, if I stop using an iPhone/touch, I lose access to those titles; if I wanted to re-read one of those books, I would have to re-buy it in another format.
As with the Kindle (and print books), no matter how great the reading experience is, if I don’t have the hardware with me, I can’t continue to read something I already started. As it is now, if I leave the house with only my smartphone, I can still download my current book if I find myself with some unexpected free time.
If they are lacking in selection, I wish they would get more good press so the book publishers would release their titles to Fictionwise/eReader…
Fictionwise has a fine selection is all you want to read is bad romance, erotica, or second rate sci-fi. Beyond that, it limited and overpriced.