Do Ereaders Have A Future?
From checking the blogs and news sites I recognise that this is currently a topic for conversation around the sites so I had this idea that I would throw in my thoughts. To do this it would seem to be that there are a number of dot points that we need to consider.
People enjoy The Feel of Books
Quite correct…and the concept of holding (quite firmly in the case of the iPad which would appear to be tremendously hard to keep hold of) a flat plastic item with which to read is hard for some to feel comfortable with. Understandably for some ‘curling up in front of the fire with a good ereader’ would give the impression of being less romantic than the original sobriquet.
I have to own up here to being a bit older than many of the readers of this article, so I can recollect a time when books just had to be in hard cover and there was a suspicion that “paper-backs” actually contained altered content to the hard cover version. Times do change and perchance the “tactile brigade” will determine, when they finally succumb and try it, that the Ereader experience is really quite pleasant.
In the meantime there is a lot of work going into new and different technologies that might just affect the way that ereaders are produced. Bridgestone have developed an electronic paper that may just be the forerunner of a “realistic look” ebook format that has pages like a regular novel but will do far more.
It’s All Pretty Black and White
Ereaders (well the better ones at least) use monochrome E-ink technology–which is a kind of electronic paper. E-ink screens resemble printed pages, but since they’re not backlit, you can’t look at them in a darkened room.
One company, Plastic Logic is planning to issue a colour screen for its ProReader named the QUE, sometime in 2012. Eink color is not a new notion but up till now the refresh rates have been moderately slow. I understand that the power drain on their new technology may be reasonably high so plainly there are a number of concerns still to solve.
What is apparent from this is that development is without doubt ongoing.
Advertising
In a recent blog it was suggested to me that advertising might become comparatively valuable in ebooks. I can envisage that a publisher may draw up a deal with a sponsor and you could discover ads of varying sizes throughout your ebook, as you read. Now I acknowledge that we all detest TV and radio commercials; really complain if it meant new-release Ebooks were free?
Does it do Other Stuff?
well, this is a big challenge for Ereader manufacturers. I am not certain that the eink vs backlit contention can be won by the Ereader companies unless ereaders are more capable with regard to net access and apps. The iPad has its own book store and has far more to offer at the moment.
Certainly Ereader manufacturers need to work out how to blend Eink (colour?) technology with more capacity (android?) so that they come closer to giving an option to slates and notebooks.
The NotionInk Adam seems to be looking in this area but it has fallen off the radar in recent days.
From a GREEN perspective, I consider it’s great that Ereaders would mean less paper use…and therefore fewer trees are cut down. Of course somebody from the “I have to find an environmental objection to progress’ lobby will likely discover that old discarded ereaders give off carbon. (OK…I did say I was a bit older…and with age DOES come cynicism).
In conclusion I consider there is still a strong future for the Ereader, but the companies that assemble them want to get moving before the big boys like Apple take it all away.
