The Amazon Kindle – Reading And Publishing Are Being Redefined
Portable e-book readers have been around for ten years now – although you might be forgiven for imagining that they have just exploded onto the scene in the first six months of 2009. The Franklin eBookMan, released in 1999, is generally considered to be the first true e-book reader – although it should be noted that there were some earlier devices, the Apple Newton is sometimes referred to in this context, which some may consider to be an e-book reader.
Today, the most famous reader, and the undisputed (but not unchallenged) market leader, is the Amazon Kindle reader. Amazon can justifiably claim to have made a huge contribution to the development of the electronic book market. Of course, the Amazon Kindle is far from alone and there are something like a dozen other serious competitors with portable readers available – including Sony, Samsung, Plastic Logic and iRex. There are already apps available for the Apple iPhone and Apple are expected to release their tablet based PC by the end of 2009 (or maybe early in 2010) which would be well suited for reading electronic books.
Apart from the development work being carried out by major electronics manufacturers, there are a number of other initiatives ongoing which serve to promote the cause of electronic books.
For example, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced that the state of California would begin providing free downloadable electronic textbooks for students in the fall of 2009. Whilst Governor Schwarzenegger did not refere to the Amazon Kindle directly, a paper issued by the New Democratic Leadership Council – a Washington think tank formed in 1985 which has Hilary Clinton as a member – did. With the title “A Kindle In Every Backpack”, the report recommends that each of America’s K-12 school children be supplied with a free electronic book reader which would be used to access digital academic textbooks.
It does very much seem as if the concept of portable electronic book readers is an idea whose time has come. The technology is, if not fully complete, at least developed to an acceptable level. The infrastructure is there – both Amazon and Google have adequately large libraries of electronic books. The political will seems to be gathering momentum and the academic establishment is rapidly putting its weight behind the concept.
At this time there is, understandably perhaps, a strong focus on the technology and the functionality of the reader devices. However, it’s worth reflecting upon what all of this means for the future of books, reading and publishing in general. Here are just a few future possibilities:
- Traditional publishing patterns – hardback followed by paperback a few months later – will change. E-books make a low cost method to release new books available and will be used to test the market.
- E-book readers provided based upon cell phone pricing models. An initially low price is supported by a monthly subscription – or possibly a minimum number of books purchased per annum.
- Electronic book readers given away free (or at a large discount) to customers willing to sign up to a long term newspaper, magazine, stock feed or blog subscription.
- Free books to download – but with adverts every few pages. We could possibly even see hyperlinks from naturally occurring but commercially attractive keywords in the text to advertiser’s sites. [Amazon already have a large number of free Kindle books available – and Google have a huge library of public domain titles on offer]
- Free readers issued by the government to school children and students.
- Free readers given to students by universities as an incentive to enrol with them. [This is already happening today]
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