Why isn’t there an iPod for electronic books (eBooks)? And where’s the eBook equivalent of an iTunes store? Last month Sony launched two products in the United States that it hopes will address both issues.
The Sony Reader is a paperback-sized device with a 15cm screen that can store about 80 eBooks, or hundreds on a plug-in memory card. The $350 Reader is joined by a new online service, Connect, which offers more than 10 000 eBooks from publishers such as Simon and Schuster, Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins and Harlequin (www.sony.com/reader).
So is the eBook market finally coming of age? Nick Bogaty, executive director of the International Digital Publishers Forum (IDPF, www.idpf.org), says: ”Four factors need to be in place for the market to take off. You need a device that makes reading pleasurable, content at the right price, a great selection of content and eBooks that are easy to use. We’re definitely getting closer to these goals.”
On the face of it, an eBook is an attractive proposition; it can offer features difficult or impossible to find in a printed book, such as hyperlinks, multiÂÂmedia content, cut and paste, high degrees of interactivity and updated content. It can be downloaded and read instantly, and publishers don’t have to transport huge volumes of books around the country and store them in warehouses. It can be read on a PC, a PDA, a smartphone or a dedicated device such as Sony’s Reader. But despite these benefits, even Bogaty admits that eBooks are still a cottage industry. The US market was worth about $15million last year and sales for the first half of the year totalled only 907 000. In 2004, US firms published 2,3billion books worldwide; only 0,1% of them were eBooks.
The eBook sector has faced four major hurdles: construction, cost, content and culture. Constructing a reading device is much more challenging than making a digital music player, says Bill McCoy, general manager of Adobe’s e-publishing business: ”Music has been digital since the CD and digital players use a simple interface — headphones. An eBook reader needs sophisticated display technology and a long battery life.”
Paper remains the best medium for text reading and, until recently, it has been hard to offer similar clarity on a screen. But the development of e-ink technology, which uses millions of black and white microcapsules on a screen, from the E-ink Corporation (www.eink.com) has dramatically improved text on a screen. Sony’s Reader uses e-ink and the company says its battery will last for up to 7 500 page turns.
Dutch electronics giant Philips has developed a prototype rollable electronic display and a Philips spin-off, Irex Technologies (www.irextechnologies.com), markets a rival eBook device, iLiad (about $830), which includes Wi-Fi.
So far, Apple has not made the iPod an eBook reader as well. When asked if it had eBook plans, the company said: ”We don’t discuss unannounced products.”
The eBook sector is also trying to address one of the biggest issues — standardisation. There is a plethora of eBook file formats, reader software and digital rights management (DRM) systems. The latter is used by the book publisher to control how the eBook is used, for instance, restricting its use to a unique device or offering limited copying facilities.
The IDPF, an international trade and standards forum, plans to release a new open file format, .obe, and a standard Zip-based file container, which Bogaty believes will help drive the eBook industry. Adobe’s McCoy thinks the market will shake down to two file formats: Adobe’s .pdf and .obe.
However, few expect there to be a common DRM. ”There are just too many patents involved in DRM technology,” says McCoy. What’s more important is how eBook publishers implement DRM technology. ”Consumers will be looking for a more flexible DRM so they can move content around,” says McCoy.
Kevin McKiernan, director of business development at US textbook distributor MBS Direct, says: ”Textbook publishers have put a lot of added value material into books, and can’t see how that transcribes to a comparable digital product. There’s also concern about the Napster effect [before Napster became a legitimate online music service].” Publishers are likely to err on the side of caution, and some form of time limit to allow for browsing before purchasing or library loans is sure to be implemented. Sony’s Reader allows eBooks to be read on up to six different devices and the company says there are no plans for releasing time-limited eBooks.
So who’s using eBooks? Leaving aside database-type products and technical manuals, the answer is a wide range of readers. ”All major publishers have eBooks. About 60% to 70% of The New York Times bestseller list is available in eBook form,” says Bogaty. Romantic novel publisher Harlequin (Mills & Boon in the United Kingdom) is a strong supporter of eBooks. ”Although they’re a tiny portion of our business now, we see it as a growing and relevant area to our customers,” says Malle Vallik, editorial director of new business development. ”Our customers are women, and women don’t embrace technology because it’s cool. They choose technology because there are benefits: selection, convenience, immediacy.”
Textbooks are a major growth market. Only 900 of the 150 000 titles MBS Direct handles are eBooks, but McKiernan says there’s a lot of interest, not least in the distance learning market. ”Students are highly mobile and it’s easier to store books on a laptop than carry them around.”
It used to be said the printed book was such a part of our culture that eBooks would never catch on, but Bogaty disagrees. ”People read so much electronic text now that this argument no longer holds water.” But even the most ardent eBook fan doesn’t expect paper books to become obsolete: ”They’ll co-exist and we’ll see publishers offering combined packages, so customers get the best of both worlds,” says McKiernan. — Â