Slashdot Mirror
Bubble Bursts for e-Books
Reuters has a piece noting that ebooks haven't lived up to the hype. Give it a few years, and publishers willing to issue non-DRM ebooks, and reading devices that go for days without being recharged and are as light as a paperback, and then we'll see...
I wonder are there any iTunes/P2P-like plans for distributing ebooks? Something that could give the 'little guy' who wants to publish a book a chance to get his work seen without having to go through a publisher? It seems like most ebooks have to be distributed under a specific hardware platform, and not under something more general like a PDF.
Advantages of e-books:
- they don't take space. You can take a few hundred books with you anywhere you go, and at home you don't need bookshelves to store them.
- they are easy to search - just type a word/phrase, no need to turn pages over and over
- they don't get worn out, no matter how many times you read them or how long you keep them.
- they are easy to quote, if you want to quote some phrases/passages in email or blog or essay, you can just copy/paste, no need to type.
Until the print display on ebook readers is at least 600 DPI, forget it. The print you read on a cheap paperback is 1200 DPI. The text displayed on your ebook reader is about 96 dpi, or the quality of a poor dotmatrix printout.
Studies have shown that difference in resolution slows reading by about 30% and causes eyestrain and headache.
The interesting thing is, most people will not identify these problems, rather just express a dissastisfaction with the overall experience.
a 600 DPI reflective display for an ebook reader is essential for the technology to take off.
Digital ink may be the answer. It will be interesting to find out.
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