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Ebook Reader Notes and Reviews

Posted July 28th, 2009 by wcrawford
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Comparing the Readers

The table formerly in this article has been removed because it's not feasible to keep up with the complex array of dedicated ebook readers--and other devices thought by some to be better than dedicated ebook readers. (Note: Most "dedicated" readers also play music--but they use E-Ink rather than LCD screens as their primary screens.)

Several websites attempt to keep up with and compare various ebook readers and software. Among those that aren't obviously affiliated with a single ereader supplier:

  • The MobileRead Wiki includes an E-book Reader Matrix that attempts to include all E Ink and other "epaper" devices, as well as a matrix for LCD ebook readers and loads of related information. The primary matrix (actually four tables based on screen size and age) includes more than three dozen current models.
  • ChamberFour, "for readers of books and ebooks" (but openly and unabashedly favoring ebooks as the future), offers an extensive eReader comparison page. As of March 2010, this source asserts that the Sony Reader PRS-300 ($199) is the best ereader for casual book readers and the Amazon Kindle 2 ($299) the best for newspaper and magazine readers--but there are also good brief reviews of 15 dedicated ereaders.
  • eReaderGuide.info includes a Guide to eBook Readers that includes some specifications and very brief reviews on 36 different ereader models. The ratings do not include an overall rating; highest "Value" rating goes to the Sony PRS-300, while highest "Features" ratings go to the Kindle2 and Kindle DX.

Notes on Some Ebook Readers

While the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader dedicated ebook readers (or ereaders) have probably sold the most and gained the most publicity of dedicated ebook readers, they face a complex, growing number of competitors. Notes on a few of those competitors follow, based on a variety of press sources.

Barnes & Noble nook

This $259 device is unusual, as it combines a typical 6" E Ink reading screen with a small (3.5"--but it's very wide and not very tall) color LCD touchscreen for most control functions. It does include a wireless modem (WiFi b/g) and handles PDF and ePub formats as well as images and MP3 music. (A librarian's review will appear in this article shortly.)

Foxit eSlick Reader

Foxit, makers of the fast, free Foxit PDF reader, has introduced the eSlick Reader, another reader using a 6" E Ink 600x800 pixel screen (four gray scale levels, like the Kindle 1), in a 7.4x4.7x0.4" package, weighing 6.4oz. The retail price is essentially $260, although there was an introductory price of $220 in early 2009. The device includes MP3 capabilities, has an SD slot (and includes a 2GB card, with support apparently limited to 4GB) and 128MB internal memory.

Assuming it comes to market in significant quantities, the eSlick Reader's clear selling points are purchase price, availability in many nations and avoidance of propriety ebook formats--it reads PDF (with reflow capabilities) and TXT files, and comes with software to convert other printable formats (but not DRM-laden proprietary ebook formats) to PDF. It does not offer the wireless-download or other special features of the Kindle.

(A gentle warning about the website: In addition to a surprising number of textual problems, the site uses white and orange text on a black background, which might reasonably give one pause regarding Foxit's aesthetic expertise.)

Cool-er Reader

The Cool-er looks something like some Sony Reader models--but without the touchscreen and virtual keyboard. The chief selling points seem to be price, a multiplicity of colors (it's available in eight "candy colors"), weight (it's much lighter than the competitors) and broad file support (ePub, PDF, Txt, JPEG). It's expandable via SD card (up to 4GB), runs Linux and has 1GB RAM.

Review comments on the Cool-er's operation have not been kind. At the time of introduction, supposedly only 5,000 books were available. As of August 18, 2009, there are supposedly 750,000 books available (notably, the CoolerBooks site also supports Sony's reader). CoolerBooks does not take a loss on best-sellers; as a result, its prices are frequently higher than Amazon's Kindle prices.

It's also fair to assume that Cool-er has no intention of limiting its sales to the US--since CoolBooks itself shows an address in Canada and the Cool-er website uses Canadian/British spelling.

iRex 1000S

If you want a really big screen and have really deep pockets, this unit may be your choice--it has a 10.2" screen, probably the largest E Ink screen on the market, and tablet-like note-taking abilities, but it also costs $859 and the only DRM format supported is Mobipocket (open PDF, TXT and HTML are also supported). A Gizmodo review calls it "the ebook reader that the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader wish they were."

Notes from Leader's Digest

By Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest 2008-2009

Plastic Logic's Touchscreen E-reader

According to MIT’s Technology Review, we’re still in the early days of e-readers, with only a few “chunky-looking models to choose from.” But that could change by next year when Plastic Logic will make available its sleek e-reader, which is the size of a sheet of paper, as thin as a few credit cards, and weighs less than a pound. The device will be able to store four gigabytes of data and will have a Wi-Fi connection. However, Steven Glass, head of user experience at Plastic Logic believes it’s the user interface that may win over customers.

Readers “turn” pages “by flicking a finger across the screen,” and they can skip to specific page numbers by using a toolbar. Users can add notes to documents and save them even when the documents are transferred to another device or computer. Like both the Kindle and the Sony Reader, Plastic Logic’s display uses E-ink, but in the Plastic Logic e-reader, the E-ink is on a lightweight plastic backplane (instead of on a glass backplane), which permits a larger reading area without increasing weight or bulk.

Plastic Logic is targeting readers of business documents created with Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat, plus image files and standard e-reader files. The e-reader’s goal is to eliminate the stack of papers people carry with them when they travel.

The reviewer notes that although the Plastic Logic interface is more flexible than the Kindle’s, “it appears less elegant and is slightly more cluttered.” According to industry experts, companies haven’t yet figured out the best interfaces for e-readers, but the interface may not be enough to distinguish one e-reader from another at this point. So far, the “primary factors for the e-book reader market have been content availability and device price.”

(Kate Greene, “Plastic Logic’s touchscreen e-reader,” Technology Review, May 27, 2009.)

Ebook Reader Market Penetration

As reported at Ars Technica and elsewhere, a "source close to Amazon" who claims direct knowledge of the company's sales figures says that Amazon has sold some 240,000 Kindles through the end of July 2008. As usual, Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

Sony has released sales figures for the Reader: 300,000 units between October 2006 and November 2008, with three million ebooks downloaded over that period.

Some observers believe the two devices sell at roughly comparable rates. If that's true, then the "million by the end of 2008" estimate is high--but not outrageously high.

Update: Some sources claim that as many as three million dedicated ereaders were sold through the end of 2009.

The Hot Ereader Market

“The eReader market is hot!” says Sarah Rotman Epps of Forrester Research. She’s right, and it’s getting even hotter.

About 20 different ereaders are already on the market, with new product announcements coming all the time. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) reports that U.S. ebook sales grew in the first 2 quarters of 2009 from $25.8 million to $37.6 million, and that’s just for wholesale sales. Retail sales could be as much as double that. Soon after announcing two new readers, a drop in ebook pricing and compatibility with the EPUB format, Sony introduced the Reader Daily Edition™, a wireless model with free 3G connectivity to Sony’s eBook Store.

In addition, Sony has partnered with Overdrive to launch Library Finder, which lets visitors to Sony’s eBook Store borrow from their local library’s ebook collection. The New York Public Library is Sony’s public launch partner. Apparently arrangements with academic libraries are coming soon. To borrow an ebook, visitors to Sony’s eBook store just type their ZIP code, find their library and enter their library card number. But they can’t download an ebook directly to their ereader yet; the ebook must first be downloaded to a PC. Sony eReaders will be sold at Best Buy, BJs, Borders, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, Toys“R”Us, Wal-Mart and other authorized U.S. retailers.

The Sony Reader’s library service, wide availability, and ePub compliance are big advantages over Amazon’s Kindle. The ability to download ebooks from the Kindle store directly to Kindles is a major advantage for Amazon. According to Forrester’s Epps, competitors will continue to attack Amazon’s Kindle with new features, content beyond books, lower costs, and new relationships with publishers. In the next five years we’ll see an “explosion of the eReader textbook market, and in 10 years, the market will be driven by businesses going green in government, education, health, and other sectors.”Publishers that don’t develop their own eReader opportunity will “miss their last best chance to control their own destiny.” As interest in and awareness of ereaders grows, the demographics of ereader buyers are changing. “They’re more likely to be female, less tech optimistic, and they read a lot (on average, 5 books per month) but they buy and borrow books from multiple sources, as opposed to buying lots of books online, [which] could spell trouble for Amazon.”

Sony’s e-book strategy differs from Amazon’s in several crucial respects, according to the Associated Press. The only copyrighted books the Kindle can display are from the Kindle store and the only devices it supports are the Kindle, the iPhone and the iPod Touch. In contrast, Sony’s adoption of the open e-book standard means the Sony Readers can display copyrighted books from a variety of sources, and the books can be read on a variety of devices, including cell phones. Sony’s Library Finder further differentiates it from Amazon. Richard Doherty, director of the research firm The Envisioneering Group, says that the library connection “would seem to be something Amazon would never embrace, so that could be a key differentiator.” (Since Amazon is giving different answers to librarians regarding library lending of Kindles, my guess is it won’t be long before Amazon offers a library model.)

(Nancy Herther, "Sony announces new ebook readers and EPUB Standard support," Information Today’s NewsBreaks, Aug. 20, 2009; Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester Research, "How big is the ereader opportunity," "Who will buy an ereader?"; Associated Press via Technology Review, "Sony plans a Kindle rival with wireless downloads", Aug 25, 2009; Engadget, Aug. 25, 2009.)

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