Rambling about EBooks
Inspired by this post by theferrett. (I mentioned him in a comment, so I had to go check out what he's been saying recently.)
I adore ebooks. I prefer them to paper. (For people who care: I prefer eReader .pdb files. I don't deal with MobiPicket or .lit, but I can convert them.) When we can get datajacks in our brains so we can download books and have them scroll across the insides of our eyelids, I'll be first in line. (At the back-alley illegal clinic that does the surgery for $500 cash plus an ounce of weed, instead of $1500-plus-$300/month-for-a-year version at the gov't licensed sites. 'Cos I'm poor. Geeky, but poor.)
I read ebooks on a Sony Clié... which is now unsupported/obsolete tech; I don't know what the newer equivalent is, but I suspect it includes a cellphone and wireless internet, which I don't need attached to my books-and-games collection.
But I am damn well aware that no amount of marketing hype is going to convince people that they like to read books in tiny type on a tiny screen. Certainly, our public full of nonreaders is not going to change into readers because they can buy a $150 techtoy with blinky lights.
For me, ebook-only hardware? Nope; not interested. Those who are willing to read books on a screen don't, for the most part, care about "make it look like paper." They don't care about "make it act like pages." Flip page, wait for new screen to load? No, I'm trying to avoid that.
And I, like the public, reject the idea that books-on-pixels are worth as many dollars as books-on-paper. I may reject the idea more than the general public, because I know that the "pixels" stage is included in the process of getting them on paper; a single additional macro at some late stage of publishing will produce an ebook... which, unlike a paper book, can be sold an infinite number of times without costing the publisher anything other than a blip of server activity. The ebook market gurus need to look at iTunes... cost for "electronic entertainment file" maxes out at about $2.99. Doesn't matter if it's a song, book, or entire movie; most people won't pay more than a couple of bucks for something with no physical existence and only a single usage type. (Software, they'll pay for... files to put through that software, much less so.)
(This is not the post for an anti-DRM rant, but it's also relevant to the issue of ebook reader marketability. Inflexibility of use and sharability is a heavy minus. Nobody buys as many physical books as they've read in their life, and trying to insist on 1 purchase=1 reader for ebooks has created widespread piracy, not more book sales.)
I think no amount of marketing is going to fix the failure of ebook readers... because the people doing the marketing (and designing the features based on whatever godsawful marketing research they've done) have listened to the general public with their "Oh, I'd like an ebook reader to have this and this and this!" instead of realizing that the general public does not read and it doesn't matter what features they would want if they would use an ebook reader.
I would pay $150 for the right ebook reader. (Okay, I would pay $25 on Craigslist for a $150 MSRP ebook reader. But I do occasionally buy techtoys at full price new, and if it were perfect, I might do that.) I might know a few geeky friends who would do the same. I suspect we aren't enough of a target demographic to have any influence. So I'll continue to read ebooks on a device that lacks a few of the features I'd like (better scrolling, folders/bookshelves to sort books so I don't have to wade through all several dozen every time I want to change books, better picture integration, better search, etc.), because the Dedicated EBook Readers lack several features I consider crucial--like the ability to read a dozen ebook formats (or install software for that purpose). I don't know if they can recharge at any computer, have long battery life, allow me to add bookmarks & notes to my ebooks, allow easy beaming to friends... but those are all important to me too.
And I like my little freeware solitaire games; I like a round of Kakuro or MahJong or remove-the-blocks-in-pairs in between books. And the address book is useful. And I have delusions that someday I'll figure out Yanoff and be able to do usenetty stuff on BART. So it'd have to be a damn perfect ebook reader to convince me to switch from a general-purpose PDA.
I adore ebooks. I prefer them to paper. (For people who care: I prefer eReader .pdb files. I don't deal with MobiPicket or .lit, but I can convert them.) When we can get datajacks in our brains so we can download books and have them scroll across the insides of our eyelids, I'll be first in line. (At the back-alley illegal clinic that does the surgery for $500 cash plus an ounce of weed, instead of $1500-plus-$300/month-for-a-year version at the gov't licensed sites. 'Cos I'm poor. Geeky, but poor.)
I read ebooks on a Sony Clié... which is now unsupported/obsolete tech; I don't know what the newer equivalent is, but I suspect it includes a cellphone and wireless internet, which I don't need attached to my books-and-games collection.
But I am damn well aware that no amount of marketing hype is going to convince people that they like to read books in tiny type on a tiny screen. Certainly, our public full of nonreaders is not going to change into readers because they can buy a $150 techtoy with blinky lights.
For me, ebook-only hardware? Nope; not interested. Those who are willing to read books on a screen don't, for the most part, care about "make it look like paper." They don't care about "make it act like pages." Flip page, wait for new screen to load? No, I'm trying to avoid that.
And I, like the public, reject the idea that books-on-pixels are worth as many dollars as books-on-paper. I may reject the idea more than the general public, because I know that the "pixels" stage is included in the process of getting them on paper; a single additional macro at some late stage of publishing will produce an ebook... which, unlike a paper book, can be sold an infinite number of times without costing the publisher anything other than a blip of server activity. The ebook market gurus need to look at iTunes... cost for "electronic entertainment file" maxes out at about $2.99. Doesn't matter if it's a song, book, or entire movie; most people won't pay more than a couple of bucks for something with no physical existence and only a single usage type. (Software, they'll pay for... files to put through that software, much less so.)
(This is not the post for an anti-DRM rant, but it's also relevant to the issue of ebook reader marketability. Inflexibility of use and sharability is a heavy minus. Nobody buys as many physical books as they've read in their life, and trying to insist on 1 purchase=1 reader for ebooks has created widespread piracy, not more book sales.)
I think no amount of marketing is going to fix the failure of ebook readers... because the people doing the marketing (and designing the features based on whatever godsawful marketing research they've done) have listened to the general public with their "Oh, I'd like an ebook reader to have this and this and this!" instead of realizing that the general public does not read and it doesn't matter what features they would want if they would use an ebook reader.
I would pay $150 for the right ebook reader. (Okay, I would pay $25 on Craigslist for a $150 MSRP ebook reader. But I do occasionally buy techtoys at full price new, and if it were perfect, I might do that.) I might know a few geeky friends who would do the same. I suspect we aren't enough of a target demographic to have any influence. So I'll continue to read ebooks on a device that lacks a few of the features I'd like (better scrolling, folders/bookshelves to sort books so I don't have to wade through all several dozen every time I want to change books, better picture integration, better search, etc.), because the Dedicated EBook Readers lack several features I consider crucial--like the ability to read a dozen ebook formats (or install software for that purpose). I don't know if they can recharge at any computer, have long battery life, allow me to add bookmarks & notes to my ebooks, allow easy beaming to friends... but those are all important to me too.
And I like my little freeware solitaire games; I like a round of Kakuro or MahJong or remove-the-blocks-in-pairs in between books. And the address book is useful. And I have delusions that someday I'll figure out Yanoff and be able to do usenetty stuff on BART. So it'd have to be a damn perfect ebook reader to convince me to switch from a general-purpose PDA.