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I've just bought an eBook reader - I'm a great consumer of fiction but generally not good at getting rid of books once I've read them so my house has gradually become one large stack of books. I've therefore decided that where possible, I'm going to buy both music and books digitally in future where this is feasible.
In terms of readers, the Kindle isn't available over here in the UK and although the Sony PRS is much sexier looking, I didn't want to be stuck with having to get things either from their tie-in partner Waterstones nor from the Sony Store in their proprietary format due to the limited range, so I went for the BeBook instead, which accepts most (but not all) formats.
I find the BeBook easy to use, but one thing that's annoyed me is that can't work out how to add bookmarks on the couple of books I've read so far. It uses eInk technology, so it really does look like a printed page. The screen's not backlit so it doesn't give you eyestrain.
I've read ebooks before; initially when I got into the Liaden Universe stuff by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller and found that there was more of their writing available on ebook that wasn't available in print. I had to read that on the computer and it wasn't enormously convenient so I never read all the ebooks I'd bought, but I have still got them and the reader software on my PC, so could have a go at them again some time.
I've also read a number of books on my iPhone - again this is very easy to do using the eReader software, in fact the iPhone is very easy to read stuff on since due to the touchscreen, you swipe to turn a page and the response time is very quick. If an eBook reader like the Sony or the BeBook had a similar kind of touchscreen I think that'd make them much more appealing to the general punter.
I think the main things preventing ebook use becoming more popular are:
- DRM and format wars. There is a proliferation of competing formats, generally with DRM over the top, so whichever reader you go for you are never going to get access to all of the available content. Whilst hacks and converters are available, when I was looking to find a way of converting my Liaden books into a newer format that I could use with my BeBook (the website which originally sold them having gone out of business), several hours of online research persuaded me that this would be too difficult.
- cost and breadth of content. ebooks offered for sale are currently priced on a very similar level to paper books, so there's not much price incentive to buy digitally (although the key retailers I've seen have a points-type loyalty scheme). For example there still seems to be the hardback/paperback pricing difference even in digital format. I have no idea if this is driven by royalties or DRM issues, but in any event it's a subtantial barrier to entry. Similarly the range of ebooks you can get does not match up to printed books so if you're looking for something specific or maybe older, it might be difficult or even impossible to find digitally.
- no second hand market - once you've read an ebook you can't really give it or sell it on to someone else. This is another reason why the pricing hasn't been particularly challenged.
I think until there's a similar threat to the publishing industry's revenue models as was experienced with MP3s, these issues are unlikely to be sorted out, at least not in favour of the consumer. |
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