The thing is, e-book readers really took off in 2009 ‘ helped greatly by the release of the Amazon Kindle 2.0 and, later in the year, the larger Kindle DX model. E-book readers had been around for quite some time before that ‘ the Franklin eBookman launched in 1999, over a decade ago ‘ but it wasn’t until 2009 that these devices really took off. Whatever the reason, during 2009, they were very much an idea whose time had come.
As previously stated, the release of the Kindle 2.0 was a significant factor ‘ but not the only factor in this. The original Kindle hit the market in November 2007, well after the eBookman and also behind the Sony PRS reader which launched in 2006. There was a fairly good response to the launch of the original Kindle – Oprah Winfrey even announced that it was her “favorite new gadget” – but it was not until the release of the Kindle 2.0 that e-book readers really went mainstream.
Amazon had certainly done their homework and the upgraded Kindle 2.0 was a very much improved piece of hardware in comparison with the original. In addition to the improved hardware, the choice of books available for the Kindle had grown dramatically. At the time of the Kindle 2.0 launch there were just over 200,000 Kindle books available. This number has continued to grow at an average rate of around 500 new titles a day. At the moment there are over 500,000 titles available for Kindle users to choose from.
Needless to say, Amazon made a very good job of marketing the Kindle. They already had an endorsement from Oprah ‘ and when Stephen King published a special novella to mark the launch of the Kindle 2.0 it certainly generated plenty of publicity for Amazon’s new device. The release of the large display DX edition made sure that the Kindle would stay in the spotlight into the last six months of the year. This was marketed as being ideal for readers of newspapers, magazines and academic textbooks ‘ and the academic publishing community produced even more publicity for Amazon as they entered into agreements with universities and colleges nationwide.
Of course, e-book readers are aimed, fairly and squarely, at people who read a lot of books. It wouldn’t make much sense to invest in one of these if you read only a book a month – would it? Many avid readers will be just as fond of books as they are of reading. It’s only natural to wonder if you will miss the feel of a ‘real’ book in your hand, the pleasure of thumbing through the pages, marking your place with old bus tickets ‘ or even dog-earing the pages. You can find many online reviews that will tell you how the Kindle measures up with the Sony Daily Edition reader – or how the new Apple iPad compares to Barnes & Noble’s Nook reader. But how well does the Kindle, or any other e-book reader for that matter, compare with a good old fashioned book?
A recent survey of American e-book reader owners found that 80% of them actually preferred using an e-book reader to reading a conventional book. Perhaps they may be a little biased ‘ but e-book readers certainly offer some advantages in comparison with conventional books.
E-books generally cost quite a bit less than conventional books. This makes sense ‘ after all they don’t use paper or ink and, since they are a digital product rather than a physical one, there are no freight fees. For precisely the same reasons, e-books are better for the environment than traditional paper volumes.
E-book readers are easy to operate with one hand ‘ so on a crowded bus or train they are easier to handle than a conventional book. They also have the capacity to store hundreds of books electronically ‘ so you can carry a small library with you on your travels.
For many bibliophiles the display could be a potential problem. Modern e-book readers use special e-ink technology. This is very different to reading on a back-lit computer screen and produces a reading experience which is astonishingly similar to reading standard text printed on paper. Page turns are much quicker than they were even as little as a year ago. After just a couple of hours using an e-book reader you will be completely unaware that you are using an electronic gadget instead of thumbing through the pages of a conventional book – as long as you’re reading a good book that is.
E-book readers genuinely have much to offer book lovers. They have come a long way in a relatively short time and there will doubtless be further developments in both the reader hardware and the e-books themselves in the short to mid-term future. The Amazon Kindle is currently the clear market leader but is facing very stiff competition from competitors such as Sony, Barnes and Noble and the new Apple iPad. The increased competition will be good news for consumers as it will tend to produce a downward pressure on prices resulting in cheaper e-book readers and e-books. It seems highly probable that e-books will have an important role to play in the future of reading and – considering Amazon’s strong association (love for?) books, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t continue to play a key role in the future of reading.
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Read more about the Amazon Kindle and decide if an e-book reader could be a good choice for you.
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