The rise of the e-book
E-books aren't exactly new, but it's only in the last few years that they've really begun to sell in any big numbers - but the real growth will be in the next couple of years, driven by Amazon and Apple.
15 February 2010
While there are many e-book readers on the market - most of them very good - there are two clear leaders: Amazon and Apple - and the amazing thing is, Apple's offering hasn't even been released yet
Ironically, Apple and Amazon's competitors' offerings are better in one key way: they're more open in terms of from where they accept books. The e-book readers from Sony, BeBook, iRiver and the like all support the e-pub format - an open standard. This means you can buy e-books from a wider number of places, and, should you change your e-book reader, it's much easier to move your virtual books to a new device.
By contrast, the Amazon and Apple offerings tie you more tightly to them as retailers - Amazon via its Kindle Store, and Apple via iTunes. (Since the iPad has not yet been released, we don't know for certain which e-book formats it supports, but it's unlikely that Apple will change its business model and will retain the iTunes store as the primary place to get books.)
Yet it's this seemingly disadvantageous approach that is actually its key advantage. Buying a book is so, so much easier. There's none of that tedious mucking about with files of any kind - with some stores, you have to buy, download, connect your reader to your PC/Mac, copy the files across and so on before you can read. The PC-based nature of the process also means you can only buy a book when you're at your PC, not when you're out and about, whenever the fancy takes you.
Buying a book on the Kindle is so easy it's laughable. The Kindle is permanently connected to the mobile phone network - for which there is no additional charge. When you want a new book, you can browse to the Kindle bookstore directly from your Kindle. It's pretty quick, too. You can search or browse for a book, then read customers' reviews and download a sample chapter if you're still not sure. Once you decide to buy, it's one click (using Amazon's One Click, so you don't even need to whip out your credit card) and the book is downloaded - usually in less than a minute - straight to your Kindle. And off you go. What's more, the connection to the Kindle Store works more or less anywhere in the world, too.
Anyone who's not sold on the idea of e-books should try a simple experiment. Pick up a copy of Stephen King's latest book, Under The Dome. Then pick up an e-book reader - the e-book reader is a fraction of the weight and thickness, and it'll hold hundreds or thousands of books. The e-books cost less, too - so why bother taking up shelves with books, paying more for them and having to either go and get them or wait for them to arrive? It's true, e-book readers aren't exactly cheap, but it's early days - they will come down in price, perhaps by 50%, within a couple of years.
So which is it to be, the Kindle or the iPad? Well, there are arguments for both.
The Kindle is cheaper and it's linked to the world's biggest bookstore. But don't be misled, the Kindle Store doesn't contain electronic versions of every book on sale by Amazon, not by a long way. The Amazon store contains over 26 million books, the Kindle Store not quite 340,000. Still, that's an impressive amount and more than you're likely to be able to read in a lifetime - though it's always something of a blow when you discover there's a book you want and it's not available, such as the Last Fighting Tommy (the story of World War I's last heroes, such as Harry Patch), as one example.
The Kindle uses an 'e-ink' display rather than a conventional LCD or LED screen. An e-ink screen only uses power when the screen refreshes, so, somewhat amazingly, when you're reading a page, no power is being used. This gives it a battery life that's measured in days, even if you're an avid reader - between 7-10 days, in fact. That's impressive - you could take it on holiday, without your charger. You can also read the display in direct sunlight, without any problems - unlike most computer displays.
The Kindle is well-built, solid and very functional. It has a built-in keyboard, so you can annotate books. It also has a built-in dictionary, so you can look up a word without leaving the book you're reading - just by highlighting the word. You can also automatically synchronise your reading position with any other Kindle device - for example, there's a Kindle Reader to go on your PC, iPhone and soon Mac.
As an e-book reader, the Kindle is excellent - but here's where the iPad starts to score. The Kindle is a one-trick pony: it's just for reading books. The iPad costs more, but it does so much more.
For a start, the iPad's touch-screen really does make the Kindle look a bit antiquated. If the iPad's Star Trek, the Kindle's HG Wells. There's no real keyboard on the iPad, a virtual keyboard pops onto the screen when you need it. In fact, the iPad's lacking controls of almost any kind - everything happens on screen.
And while the iPad has a bookstore, via iTunes, we still don't know how many books Apple will be selling - but it's likely to grow very quickly to be more than a match for Amazon. Unlike the Kindle, you can use your iPad for checking your e-mail, browsing the Web (the Kindle does have a Web browser but it's black and white only), looking at photos, listening to music, watching films, writing documents, editing spreadsheets, creating presentations - and playing games.
One thing which didn't come across at the launch of the iPad - and which will be a big factor in its success - is that the iPad is fun. Yes, a netbook is way cheaper and more powerful - but it's just not anywhere near as much fun.
It sounds like the iPad wins hands-down, but it's not quite so clear-cut. The iPad's battery life is about 10-11 hours - so enough for a flight, not enough for a holiday. The screen won't be as good outside - in fact, it's not likely to be anywhere near as restful on the eyes when reading, since it's a computer display. As an e-book reader, the iPad comes second to the Kindle. But as a multi-function device, the Kindle doesn't even get into the starting gate. But they're both excellent at what they do - Apple's experience with the iPhone has allowed them to create something that really is a new category of device, but Amazon's experience has allowed them to create a really great device for avid readers.
So there's only one answer: buy both!
