The Millions: The Possibility of an eBook Summer

Back to Most Recent Posts

April 04, 2006

The Possibility of an eBook Summer

Hillel Italie, the AP's publishing beat reporter, has a story about how a couple of major book stores aren't getting behind the impending release of the Sony Reader. According to Italie, both Barnes & Noble and Amazon won't be carrying the device when it comes out this summer, while Borders will be carrying it. In a post from a couple of months ago, I mentioned the Sony Reader, which had gotten rave reviews from people who'd tried it out. Sony now has the Reader up on its Web site, and I have to say, even in the pictures, it looks a lot more usable than I expected. It's small and relatively elegant looking, but the quality of the text on the screen is most impressive. There is certainly a paper-like quality to the display. Despite all this, I don't think I'll be pulping my books anytime soon. I simply enjoy all the non-textual aspects of books too much. I do think, however, that if this device is as pleasant to use as people have described it to be, then surely there will be some use for it, and certainly some categories of books will be ripe for transition to this format. Textbooks come to mind.

Truthfully, I'm really not all that surprised that Barnes & Noble isn't carrying the Sony Reader because I would imagine that the transaction of buying books for the device and the act of reading books on the device won't have any real connection to the typical brick and mortar book store experience. Not unlike how the way many people now buy and listen to music doesn't have much of a connection to the Tower Records down the street, and Tower Records (probably to its detriment) isn't in the "eMusic business." As for Amazon sitting this one out, that's a little harder to understand, but I'd imagine it'll jump on board if there's any inkling in the early going that the Sony Reader is taking off. Ultimately, I think the Sony Reader will be a success if Sony manages to sell it as a comfortable reading device and not a replacement for books. There are a few other issues, of course. It's expensive, set to retail for $300 to $400, and there are many handheld devices, and many more on the way, that can function as "eReaders," though without Sony's special, paper-like display, while also doing a lot of other stuff - I'm talking Palms and the like here. Regardless, though, 2006 should be an interesting year to watch the ongoing digital future of books.

Supplemental Links: Another pic of the device at Gizmodo; Kevin 2.0 asks if dedicated eBook readers are really needed; Bookninja, on the other hand, calls it the "iPod for nerds."

- C. Max Magee @ 11:00 PM ~ comments: 1 ~ Links to this post

Comments:

While I like the idea and, if I had the cash to spare, I would get one; I do like being able to dip into a book or skip ahead looking for a good break to stop, or skipping back for info.

# posted by