Library Junction

It’s no longer such a novel thing to read a book on a mobile phone, and on the iPad, it’s practically a requirement to download “The Elements” or open Winnie the Pooh” to give your friends a glimpse of the future of book reading.

But for many people, choosing the best book-reading app is a challenge, especially for iPhone users, because of the wealth of choices in the App Store from Apple.

The problem is not really the small things — the differences in how the iBooks and Kindle apps, for example, turn a page, or enlarge the fonts. The better apps are all pretty good in these respects already, and they will all reach parity on such things quickly enough. And they’re all free, so it costs nothing to switch.

Nonetheless, the iBooks iPad app offers a generally better reading experience than its rivals, because of automatic brightness adjustments and overall ease of use. But its store has fewer books than the Amazon Kindle app or the Barnes & Noble eReader app.

Kindle and Barnes & Noble for the iPhone were good, although the Kindle app lacks the ability to lend books to friends, as you can with the Barnes & Noble app.

On a BlackBerry, Kobo was the most full featured, and on Android phones, Aldiko was the best in a sparse field, although it is greatly hampered, at least for now, by a lack of recent titles.

But since the reading experience on these apps is not significantly different, the hard choice comes down to differentiating how you select your books, and how you may one day like to use them — beyond reading on your Android, iPhone or BlackBerry.

In this respect, there are nuanced differences, but the upshot is this: I’m starting my own digital library through the Kobo iPad app, and I plan to hedge by not buying a lot of books in the near future. I will also keep a close eye on Barnes & Noble’s capabilities when it introduces its iPad app in the coming weeks.

Kobo is backed by Borders, among others. Kobo’s selection is not as good as those on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but you can potentially do more with those books when you buy them through Kobo.

The books you buy from most of these apps are, for now, readable only within the company’s apps. It is as if you have to travel back to the bookstore every time you want to open the book. That is not a major headache, as long as the apps that support your e-books survive forever, with the support of the major hardware manufacturers.

But if Amazon folds its apps, or if you decide you want to read your books on another e-reading app, the books will be far less useful.

Which brings us back to Kobo. The company’s chief executive, Michael Serbinis, said that on the Kobo app, you could buy a book, keep it forever and read it on any other device you choose, excluding Amazon’s. (A Barnes & Noble executive vice president, Jamie Iannone, said its books could be read on other apps too, like Kobo, as long as they used similar technology, but it had not tested that.)

This does not mean Kobo is assured of long-term success, but it does mean the books you buy from this app may have a marginally higher chance of being useful to you years from now than books bought from a store with a proprietary format.

I bought books from both the Kobo and Barnes & Noble apps on my iPhone and could not open them in other apps. So until booksellers make it easier to do what I want with the books I buy, I’ll spend conservatively.

Kobo is available for the iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry, and an Android version is in the works.

Barnes & Noble’s iPad app, like its other apps, will allow you to share books you have bought from the company with anyone who has a device using its software. (This includes all of its mobile apps.) Sharing is limited to two weeks, and a title can be lent only once. But that is a nifty trick that other apps cannot match.

If you happen to have an Android device, or are waiting for an excellent Android-based tablet to rival the iPad, the Aldiko reading app supports another e-book technology, called the Open Publication Distribution System.

That basically means you will, in the coming months, be able to buy books from a broad range of sellers, and, if those sellers use Adobe’s copyright protection software, you can transfer the books to other devices and apps that do the same. That will help address Aldiko’s major flaw at the moment — namely, a dearth of books you would want to buy.

If this sounds as though a lot of companies are suggesting you wait just a little longer for the experience to improve, it is precisely that.

And if all these promises are too much to keep track of, then just enjoy the free books available in the public domain and allow a few months, or years, for booksellers to prove that they want to let you use what you buy as you see fit. 

Written by

By BOB TEDESCHI

Published: May 12, 2010

 on the New York Times

Read the full article here

When The Search for WondLa, the start of a fantasy trilogy for kids starring a 12-year-old girl raised by a robot on an alien planet, is published today, it will include three symbols that link to digital maps of the girl's quest for other humans.

Readers with a webcam can see 3-D interactive maps of the girl's search. Readers without a webcam but access to the Internet can link to a regular map and a video.

WondLa (Simon & Schuster, $17.99) is one of the new "enhanced" hybrids in the divide between e-books (about 8% of the book market, but its fastest-growing segment) and books still made out of paper and ink.

See it in 3-D: Author Tony DiTerlizzi demonstrates the maps in The Search for WondLa with a webcam.

Author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi initially balked when his publisher suggested that digital elements be added to WondLa, fearing it would be "gimmicky."

But DiTerlizzi, co-author of the popular Spiderwick Chronicles series that became a 2008 movie, says he changed his mind when he saw that digital "augmented reality" could "enhance the story and not take anything away."

His is far from the only print book employing digital tricks.

Jessica Watson's True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World (Atria, $16, paperback original) includes 18 tags or bar codes that let readers with smartphones watch parts of Watson's video diary of her voyage. (Readers without smartphones can find the videos on the Internet.)

"It's the perfect marriage of form and function," says publisher Judith Curr. "You read Jessica's description of what she was doing on a particular day in her journey, then watch her video from that day."

Watson's videos are already on YouTube, but Curr says the book's codes make them easier to find.

Atria plans to use the same technology in books by singing sensation Susan Boyle (The Woman I Was Born to Be, Oct. 12) and Olympic skater Apolo Ohno (Zero Regrets, Oct. 26).

Lisa Von Drasek, librarian at Bank Street College of Education School for Children in New York, says she likes enhanced books when "the enhanced part is just that, not an essential element to the reading experience."

She says her students were "mesmerized" when DiTerlizzi previewed his book and its digital maps last spring. But she worries about future technical support: "The book exists for years, but the online element disappears."

Michael Norris, a publishing analyst for Simba, a market research firm, applauds such experiments but adds, "The books still need to stand as strong, complete products without the add-ons, because the add-ons may not last forever."

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-09-21-techbooks28_ST_N.htm

Graham Cottew (right), reading a book on his i-pad, while his 19-year-old son Tim prefers a paper book. Photo: Ken Irwin

E-books are set to revolutionise the way we read. But plot twists may save paper books from going the way of the dinosaur.

FOR 15 years, pundits have declared the old-fashioned book to be as doomed as the orang-utan. Just as we will one day have to visit the last of that sad species in a zoo, the dog-eared paperback is destined for a similar freakshow status. Perhaps along the lines of collectable Wedgwood or silver spoons.

It isn't only the smug futurists who hold this view: some of Melbourne's most devoted bibliophiles told The Sunday Age the book is destined to be little more than an ornament as technology increasingly transports Charles Dickens and Dan Brown into the digital age.

If this is true, the local death throes of tree-sourced literature began in May, very quietly, when the Borders website posted the first e-book bestseller list for Australia. For the first couple of weeks, a No. 1 hit meant 20 copies sold. Four months later, Borders Australia and its sister company, Angus & Robertson, have sold more then 100,000 e-books and 20,000 Kobo e-readers, and seen 200,000 e-book applications downloaded free (for iPhone and desktop computer reading) from their websites.

While one rival bookseller queried the Kobo e-reader sales figures, REDgroup, the company that owns Borders and Angus & Robertson, thinks they could have sold more if more of them had been available.

''But for about six or seven weeks we couldn't get [enough] devices into our shops,'' REDgroup communications manager Malcolm Neil says.

''We were just getting orders and managing demand … a huge latent demand.''

Ask local publishers and booksellers what the sales mean for the future of reading and they'll say: ''We don't know yet.''

On one hand, the fact that the applications (web-based software) are available free on the Borders website is just one part of an aggressive strategy by REDgroup that, for the moment, is all but locking up the e-book market in Australia. On the other hand, the fact there have been twice as many e-reading applications downloaded as actual books sold by REDgroup suggests the revolution so far is a geek-led phenomenon. If there's a new gadget going, the tech-nerds will tend to snap it up.

Graham Cottew, a web designer who specialises in risk and compliance management for the finance industry, describes himself as ''an early adopter of technology'', yet he's only read one e-book so far, The Art of War, and on his iPad, not on a dedicated e-reader. He reckons he won't take to stand-alone e-readers ''because they're a one-trick pony. I would never pick a technology that did just one thing.''

As for the electronic reading experience, he says: ''At the time, I really enjoyed it. The simulation of turning pages is great, the clarity of text is fine and I didn't get any eye strain. And the one thing I haven't seen mentioned: my wife and I often fight about turning the lights out when I want to read one more chapter. Because the iPad is back-lit, she could have the lights out and I could keep reading.''

Cottew sees e-books as having two advantages over paper books: portability and cost. ''If you are a geek, you always have your iPad with you, which means you always have your library with you. That you're virtually taking along kilograms of paper with no extra weight is a fantastic advantage.

''The other thing: I've just been given the Millennium trilogy (the Stieg Larsson juggernaut) as paper books … but I was going to buy them as e-books because the e-book version was $US9 [$A9.40 per volume] while the Albert Park bookshop sells them for $27 each. It might be over the top to say this spells the death knell for traditional books, but it's bound to take a big share of the market.''

Cottew admits an emotional attachment to his favourite paper books, including a number of ''beaten-up paperbacks''.

''They mean something to me sitting on the shelf. Sometimes books mean more to you than just the words written in them. They might have been part of your life or inspiration.''

BUT does this old-school sentimentality wash with a younger generation suckled on digital technology? Cottew's son, Tim, 19, is also a geek. To wit, a science and engineering student at Monash University. He has read a couple of science fiction e-books on his computer but isn't a fan, largely because he already spends too much of his time looking at a screen.

''I prefer reading to be a different experience. I love a paper book. I love [that] they all have different covers, where I think e-books would tend to all look the same. So you don't get the same attachment. With a paper book, it's more intimate.''

Of course, the death of intimacy tends to occur in stages, and catches its victims by surprise.

For the moment, e-book sales make up less than 1 per cent of total book sales in Australia. However, Australia is two to three years behind the US, where e-books accounted for 8.5 per cent of all book sales as of May, compared with 2.9 per cent in the same period last year, according to the Association of American Publishers.

By the end of the year, e-books are expected to account for 10 per cent of the US market, and by the end of 2011 may reach upwards of 15 per cent. In July, Amazon announced that Stieg Larsson was the first author to have sold a million copies via its exclusive Kindle e-reader. In the same week, Amazon said it was selling more e-books than hardcover books.

The growth in the Australian market will be on an equally exponential curve, says REDgroup's Malcolm Neil. ''Every new device and application adds to the size of the market,'' he says.

Two weeks ago, REDgroup signed a deal to market the Sony e-reader. Myer has also signed on, but other booksellers are locked out.

While REDgroup has trumpeted its dominance of the market, Neil doesn't believe his company has taken it hostage. ''This is the new world,'' he says. ''Everyone is staking out their claims. But it costs money to do this, big investment. We can do it because we're partners with other markets around the world, which means we're sharing costs.

''I wouldn't say we're trying to tie up the market; we're trying to obtain as much content as possible. Content is king. If you don't have content, you can't have a share of the market.''

Which is precisely what has happened so far with the independent book shops - they have no easy access to e-titles. From a consumer's point of view, you cannot go to an independent bookshop's website and buy an e-book, because they don't have them in stock - regardless of how tooled up you might be with the latest e-readers or applications.

Surely it's a simple matter of the stores buying the files direct from the publishers?

Well, no. It's a delicate and complicated issue that, as The Sunday Age discovered, many people in the Australian publishing world find difficult to understand, let alone explain. Here is the short version, as related by Stephen May, president of the Australian Publishers Association:

■ The e-book trade is complex because of technical and legal issues related to file integrity and copyright protection - and the way a couple of big companies have exploited these complexities to corner the market.

■ For the past three years, some publishers and bookstores, such as Dymocks, have been selling e-books on their websites but in formats such as PDF that don't deliver the true e-book page-turning experience. The true experience is delivered via an e-reader (such as the Kindle or Kobo) or e-reading application (as on iPad).

■ When Amazon launched its e-titles in 2007, it invested a huge amount of money in being able to digitally ''talk'' to all the publishers and gain access to the titles. It was then able to virtually monopolise the market because people could only buy and read the books through Amazon's Kindle e-reader. The company has since dominated the market via aggressive pricing and convenience.

■ Borders internationally has likewise invested in being able to talk to all publishers - and Borders Australia has benefited from this. It then did a deal with the Canadian company that produces the Kobo reader, in effect copying the Amazon model by initially adopting limited access via one type of e-reader. However, Borders has now begun selling the Sony e-reader.

■ There are 2000 Australian booksellers. Very few of them could afford to develop their own e-readers, and they'd never make their money back. Meanwhile, there is no point in a publisher simply emailing book files to bookshops that don't have the technical support for their consumers to access their books in the format they choose.

■ However, there are new e-readers coming on to the market and the number of devices is expected to grow radically - and, increasingly, they will be open systems that can talk to files sold from any outlet.

■ What's missing is a new kind of integrated distribution system - akin to the old-fashioned warehouse, but in digital form - that will serve as a protected link between publishers and bookstores, and will digitally talk to any device the consumer chooses to use. These warehouses are already being established in the US and Britain.

Says Stephen May: ''The only way to get a file into an e-reader has been through a bookstore. So far, that's meant either Amazon or REDgroup. They have the march on it. But every week there will be a new e-reader out, and that's what we're all dealing with at this point.''

As one industry insider explains: the independents expected the publishers to broker individual deals with retailers, while the publishers hoped the retailers might amalgamate into a big enough group to fund a warehouse.

Victoria Nash, digital strategy manager for Pan Macmillan, says there is talk of ''an industry-based solution'' but it will take time.

The most immediate solution (or, at least, the big white hope for the independent bookstores) rests with the Google Editions library getting online and serving as a wholesaler. Google Editions, which has scanned 21 million titles from major libraries around the world, could essentially serve as the missing wholesaler link.

Although in recent years Google has provided access to many free books that are out of copyright, Google Editions, which has been negotiating with publishers around the world, including Australia, will essentially be another online bookseller - similar to Amazon but willing to open up the market by allowing users to access books from a broad range of websites using an array of devices.

Mark Tanner, Google Editions' man in Australia, says the company is planning to sell direct to consumers, ''but we're willing to work with retailers, including the independents''. It was widely reported that Google Editions would be ready for business in July. Two months later, Tanner says the company is keeping its launch date under its hat.

Mark Rubbo, managing director of Readings, believes Google Editions ''will be the game-changer'' - and for him, the game can't change soon enough.

''My life and my business is all about selling physical books, but the e-book could take enough business that … the bookshop may not be viable on its own,'' he says.

''I guess that's why we're keen to participate in the e-book thing. And, you know, I'm sort of excited by the challenge.''

Indeed, he has already started sleeping with the enemy. ''I bought a Sony reader and a Kindle,'' he says. ''I wanted to see what it was like. On the Kindle, I have bought 10 books and read only one, a literary thriller. You didn't have to think about it, and I read it in a night … But I didn't like the way the book looked. It's very one-dimensional. Flat and bland on the page.

''I really like to flick back and forth through pages, but this was unpleasant and hard to do on the Kindle. So I think at the moment the technology is pretty basic and not very good.

''The technology will get better … but for me, the physicality of the [paper] book is always going to be more enjoyable.''

Will the paper book last? ''I think so, but nobody really knows what's going to happen. We won't have any real idea for another two or three years. And most of the predictions I've ever made about the industry have been wrong. Ten years ago, I predicted that Amazon wouldn't last.''

The big question is whether e-books will cannibalise the existing book market, or if it will lead to new growth. Says Victoria Nash of Pan Macmillan, one of Australia's top three publishers: ''Whatever happens, there is going to be a seismic shift in how the business works. I would suggest the digital generation wouldn't go into a bookstore … but because you are in their [digital] space, then, yes, the potential is there to show the market will expand rather than eat itself.''

She also points to the fact that digital technology opens up opportunities to people who have restricted access to traditional books. ''The ability to change the size of fonts has improved reading ability for the visually impaired … so they have more choices.''

Is Nash an e-book fan? ''I read them, but not as much at home. After work, the last thing I want to do is look at a screen, so paper is my preference. But … when I went travelling I had a guide book and a couple of fiction books on my iPad, so I could still access emails as well. Half the people reading e-books use a laptop instead of an e-reader.''

Does she believe the paper book is doomed to novelty status? ''I think what will happen to books is similar to what's happened to the cinema. You go to the cinema for an experience. Books on paper are a different experience. TV didn't kill off radio.''

Joel Becker, CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, is optimistic that the e-book will eventually complement rather than replace the traditional book.

''There's talk about packaging purchases so you buy both the hard copy and the e-book as well. My hope is there will be a broadening access to reading and it helps in terms of literacy … There are potential tools at the educational literacy level where someone who is reading with literacy difficulties can push a button and the book sounds out the word for them.''

Brett Osmond, head of digital publishing for Random House, says the one thing he's sure about is ''people have been making predictions every day, and I don't want to be one of them. It's too early to make firm predictions, but I don't think anything's dying.''

He remembers watching Oprah Winfrey 18 months ago introduce the Kindle on her show. She ''stood up with her Kindle and said, 'This is amazing.' She gave one to everyone in her audience.'' Osmond thought initially it was just a knee-jerk response by Oprah and her followers to the latest fad, but the fact is e-readers aren't just being bought only by those aged 18 to 25.

''We don't have a lot of information yet, but it looks like older readers are buying them. The revolution is in play … but predictions of the traditional book being dead are premature.

''They will continue to have a viable place in the market … because it's human nature to be attracted to objects and to have momentoes of the things that we love.''

Osmond is also optimistic about the future of bookshops. ''One thing you get from a little bookstore, where the people working there have read a good number of books, is a curating service. They are able to give the sort of informed advice to customers that isn't available in the digital world.''

As for his own reading habits, Osmond spends most of his working days reading manuscripts in PDF format. Last week, he jetted off to Britain for a six-month stint at Random House's London office.

He was taking Moby Dick along to read on the plane. The old-fashioned paper version: big enough to smash a computer with.

 

by

John Elder

Source: The Age

Many children want to read books on digital devices and would read for fun more frequently if they could obtain e-books. But even if they had that access, two-thirds of them would not want to give up their traditional print books.

D. Murali

It is a sunny afternoon, and Pradeep Palazhi, COO of Bangalore-based EC Media International P Ltd (http://bit.ly/F4TPradeepEC), is cheerful. Understandably so, because only a day ago his company's Wink, the desi eReader, was out in New Delhi with a price tag of less than Rs 12,000.

“I foresee eReaders accelerating a larger trend towards electronic/digital publishing,” he begins, without batting an eyelid, during our interaction for eWorld. “Digital media in publishing is not going to replace printed media. However, it is going to be growing in size and share of the publishing market. More and more content will be published in electronic and printed formats to start off and the balance will tilt towards electronic formats in the future.”

Another interesting aspect, in Pradeep's view, is the way the whole eBook phenomenon is going to affect the traditional libraries. The jury is still out, but early trends indicate that the library model will have to undergo a significant makeover in the process, he avers.

A thought that Pradeep offers to the traditional bookshops is that they will have to come up with innovative models to adapt to the eBook revolution. “While eBooks are not going to replace printed books, they will definitely reduce their share of the market. Digital publishing or eBook publishing will result in increase of self-publishing market. It will be easier and cost-effective for authors to publish their titles which may not be accepted by a traditional publisher. This market will see a huge growth over the next few years.”

If the whole eBook and eReader revolution improves the reading habit then we will all be better off, and there are indications in that direction, observes Pradeep. Our conversation continues over email.

Excerpts from the interview.

What have been the significant milestones in the evolution of eReaders till now?

The significant milestones in the evolution of eReaders are noted below:

1) Launch of Project Gutenberg was probably the first digital reading/ digital content initiative.

2) First eBook reader (Rocket Reader) launched in 1998.

3) Sony's first portable eReader launched in the US in 2006.

4) Launch of Amazon's Kindle in November 2007 was really the start of the current eReader revolution.

5) Kindle became the bestselling gift item in Amazon in 2009.

6) Years 2009 and 2010 saw the availability of a number of good eReaders in the market

7) Sales of eBooks overtook hardcover sales on Amazon.com in 2010.

8) World eBook reader demand for 2010 is projected to be about 6 million units, roughly double the 2009 numbers.

Let us remember that eReaders started off as just another device. Makers of early eReaders like Sony focused on putting out another device in the market. The market didn't start to pick up and mature until more and more content became available for the eReaders and the overall user experience of getting content for the eReaders started to improve.

Year 2009 was the big turning point in the history of eReaders. Later part of 2010 and early part of 2001 will be crucial; we will witness how eReaders shape up in the market as they compete for space and attention against multi-functional devices such as the iPad.

Can you list some of the top challenges that eReader designers grapple with?

There have been many design challenges in the past. Such as, how to maximise battery life, how to offer the best navigational capabilities, etc. Another design consideration has been to determine the optimal screen size in order to provide a good reading experience while not reducing the ease of handling and not increasing the weight of the devices.

The current challenges include how to provide touch-screens without reducing the reading clarity and to bring colour to the eReaders in a cost-efficient manner.

Current and future challenges revolve around how to match some of the attractiveness of the user interfaces of tablet devices without compromising on the basics of an eReader and to provide dynamic display capabilities (e.g. support for video). One of the main design challenges will be to provide the additional functionality that consumers may desire without compromising on the core eReader functionalities.

There are already some promising models out in the market with touch-screen capabilities; and colour models will hit the market during the early part of 2011.

Yet another design and manufacturing challenge has been in bringing down the cost of eReaders. This has been primarily prevented by the monopoly of one manufacturer who controls pretty much the whole display side of the eReaders. This situation is likely to change in 2011 with more reliable choice of displays hitting the market.

Your take on the alternative revenue models that will sustain eReaders, in mature economies, and the developing countries.

Content is the king. Any revenue model which focuses on the eReader device won't be sustainable. Revenue models that focus on content revenues, CLV (customer lifetime value), communities, and value addition will thrive.

Content models that increase the CLV will thrive. Examples are newspapers, pushed news snippets, and serialised fiction. With some additional capabilities the eReader can function as a very good educational aid. Ability to better handle quizzes, tests etc, will take it a long way in to the educational space.

A growth area will be the rent-and-expire model. This is likely to become popular in 2011. Legal sharing of content also will thrive in countries such as India. B2B applications will grow significantly over the next few years. This will include corporate document management, database-based application and educational applications.

Would you like to speak about market research insights on consumer preferences in eReaders — such as what they look for the most?

It will be a mistake to focus on eReader features. The eReader features will be a hygiene factor that people will expect from all the eReader devices and will soon be a commodity.

Consumers want a holistic user experience from eReaders. That means availability of good content at reasonable prices and ease of buying, maintaining and accessing them from multiple devices.

The eReader can position itself only as a reading and educational device. It can never compete effectively against tablets and other multifunctional devices in their market space. Advantages of an eReader against multi-functional devices include low power consumption (long battery life), being easy on your eyes as against a backlist LCD screen, distraction-free reading (you are not bothered by an email or message), and light weight which enables carrying around and holding up like a book. According to you, what are likely to be the key drivers of the growth of eReader market in India? And, the key hurdles? Key drivers of growth: 1) The long tail: It is still difficult and expensive to get many books in many parts of India. The eBooks will make it easier to serve that segment of the market. 2) Cost: The eBooks are generally cheaper than printed books. This will be a boon for the growth of the market. 3) Device affordability: There is a growing upwardly mobile reading community that can afford to buy an eReader device. 4) Language: Regional language support will mean content not traditionally available in bookstores will drive the growth of the market. 5) Growing eco-conscious community: A large segment of the population is now conscious about the need to save trees. The eBooks help in that direction. To these, you can add the education segment and Government initiatives as drivers that can spur the spread of eReaders. Key hurdles: 1) The eReader prices are still high. The prices have to come down for this to be a mass market item. 2) Connectivity challenges will slow down the growth. 3) Of the overall commerce, eCommerce is still a very low percentage. 4) Publishers are slow to bring out content in digital formats. Going forward, how do you see eReaders shaping up? The eReader will have its own space in the overall device market. It may take new forms and shapes including having more advanced capabilities such as colour and support for video. There will also be a sustained focus on improving the overall user experience of using eReaders. You will see lighter, faster and more capable devices in the market.

dmurali@thehindu.co.in

Source: The Hindu