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Kindle and Ebook Reader Notes

Posted July 28th, 2009 by wcrawford
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Comparing the readers

These readers--the Kindle DX, Kindle 2, Sony Touch and Sony Pocket--all use E-ink screens and support both DRM-laden proprietary formats and a variety of open formats (too complex for a table).

Characteristic Kindle DX Kindle 2 Sony Touch Edition Sony Pocket Edition
Dimensions 10.4"x7.2"x0.38" 8"x5.3"x0.36" 6.9"x4.8"x0.4" 6.25"x4.25"x0.41"
Weight 18.9 oz. 10.2 oz. 10 oz. 7.8 oz.
Screen size 9.7" diagonal 6" diagonal 6" diagonal 5" diagonal
Resolution 1200x824 pixels 600x800 pixels 600x800 pixels 600x800 pixels
Pixels per square inch 150ppi 167ppi 167ppi 200ppi
Gray scale levels 16 16 8 8
Price $489 $259 $299 $199
Wireless downloads Yes Yes No No
Internal capacity 3.3GB 1.4GB 380MB 440MB
Expandable via SD card No No Yes No
Keyboard Yes Yes Virtual No
Touch screen No No Yes No
Text-to-speech Yes Yes No No

Other ebook readers

The Kindle DX and Kindle 2 are hardly the only ebook readers. The Sony Reader has been out since late 2006. Several dedicated ebook readers have come and gone over the past decade. We're promised new and better readers in the future.

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 e-book reader  

Based on information from the CoolReaders site and commentary in a July 1, 2009 Wired.com review.

The Cool-er looks something like the Sony reader--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.

Sony Reader Pocket Edition

by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest August 2009

Sony’s new Reader Pocket Edition is cheaper and smaller than other readers currently on the market. It can display text in the open source epub format—unlike the Kindle, which can download books only from Amazon’s Kindle store. But it still doesn’t have a wireless download capability like the Kindle’s, though Sony is apparently working on that.

What we need to pay closest attention to, though, is the growing market for ereaders. While still small, U.S. ebook sales reached $113 million last year, according to the Association of American Publishers. That’s an increase of 68 percent over 2007 sales while still a fraction of the $24.3 billion spent on all books. In addition, Forrester Research sees the Sony Pocket Edition’s $199 price tag as breaking an important psychological barrier and forecasts sales of 2 million digital readers this year (just over 1 million were sold in 2008).

("New Sony e-book reader $100 cheaper than Kindle," Associated Press, via Technology Review, Aug. 4, 2009.) 

[Editor's note: The AAP figure for book sales includes only major publishers. BISG, which also counts small publishers, reports U.S. book sales in excess of $40 billion for 2008.]

 

Plastic Logic's touchscreen e-reader

by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest June 2009

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.

The hot ereader market

by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest August 2009

“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.)

Notes from Leader's Digest 

 by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest issues as noted

Kindle goes to college  

Leader's Digest May 2009

Six universities will partner with Amazon and publishers to supply selected students with Kindles in the fall. But is the current Kindle ready for primetime on campus? It’s too expensive for most students, has a screen that can’t accommodate the diagrams and illustrations found in many textbooks, and book selection is limited because top education publishers have released only a few titles in a Kindle-friendly format.

However, on May 6, Amazon is launching a larger version of the Kindle e-book reader that will supposedly be better suited to academic publishers. Some students at Case Western Reserve University will receive the large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already downloaded. The other five schools are Pace, Princeton, Reed, Darden School at the University of Virginia, and Arizona State, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. Additional details weren’t available, and Amazon declined to comment.

BusinessWeek describes the deal as an attempt by Amazon to expand the audience for its Kindle. This would also let Amazon pursue a share of college book sales, valued at $5.4 billion in FY 2007-08.

Is this the iPod moment for the Kindle? Probably not, but it’s one step closer. Lowering the price of the device would help. “Amazon might find a way to produce a larger device at a lower price point,” says NPD Group’s Ross Rubin. “An inexpensive e-book reader that could be used to distribute textbooks would crack open the category.”

Size is another key consideration. It can’t be too large or too small. There’s also conjecture about whether the newest Kindle will be able to be folded or rolled up. Plastic Logic, Hearst, and News Corp. are rumored to be introducing large-format e-book readers in the next year, but Apple may beat them to the punch with an Internet-ready tablet device this summer.

(Douglas MacMillan, "Amazon’s Kindle is off to college," BusinessWeek, May 4, 2009.)

New e-paper technology

University of Toronto researchers’ speedy new color-changing material could make possible bright, flexible color for electronic readers. Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader and Plastic Logic’s Reader all use E Ink’s black and white e-paper, which reflects light instead of emitting it, making it less power hungry and easier to read in bright sunlight. Color capability is expected from E Ink in the next few years, but the pixels will be divided and therefore not very bright.

The new technology from the Toronto researchers should be able to emit bright colors more like printed paper. While this new material can now match the speed of E Ink’s display, there are still hurdles to overcome. So color displays for electronic readers are on their way, but still just over the horizon.

Here’s a video of the prototype (following the Microsoft ad).

(Prachi Patel-Predd, “New e-paper technology speeds up,” Technology Review, Jan. 8, 2009.)

What you need to know about Kindle 2 

Leader's Digest February 2009 - edited November 2009.

What do library leaders really need to know now about the Kindle 2? Is it the next iPod? What’s the target market? What are the implications for libraries?

Will Kindle 2 change your life?

No. But Fast Company’s Chris Dannen thinks the next one will. In the meantime though, Kindle 2 is a nice evolutionary move but not likely to drive change. Why?

  1. Books aren’t music. The iPod let users unbundle albums and download single songs quickly and easily, and music was already being pirated. The iPod was cheap, legal and more convenient than the piracy.
  2. The Kindle focuses on the tradition of book reading, not on replacing it. Kindle users are buying the same number of bound books as they did before, so their total book consumption increases 2.6 times.
  3. Amazon is improving the Kindle incrementally. Disruption on the scale of the iPod isn’t likely unless Amazon dramatically lowers Kindle’s price or increases its benefits. But the Kindle is a success, no doubt about it.
  4. Large numbers of Kindle e-book sales could eat into Amazon’s print books sales, where its margins are higher. Right now, e-books comprise 10% of Amazon’s sales and apparently drive customers back for print books.
  5. There are only about 240,000 Kindle titles. And some important titles are missing: Harry Potter books; An Inconvenient Truth; The English Patient';' and The Associate and any other titles by John Grisham.
  6. The Kindle uses a proprietary format. O’Reilly Media’s Tim O’Reilly predicts that unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards, the Kindle will be history in two or three years...
  7. The Kindle isn’t appropriate for non-linear random-access reading, and it doesn’t support tables or monospaced fonts.

Main benefits

  • Convenience. The Kindle replaces books where they’re inconvenient. You don’t have to go to the library or the book store, or wait for your book to arrive in the mail.
  • Wireless. According to The New York Times, wireless was the breakthrough. The Kindle’s always online—none of the cables or clumsy downloads that Sony’s e-reader requires and no monthly wireless charges. Owners can think of a book and download it in less than a minute, thanks to Amazon’s contract with Sprint’s cellular Internet service (not available in many rural areas in the West, by the way).
  • Readability. Kindle owners can read for long periods without eye strain because the screen “imitates real ink and paper,” instead of being backlit.

Sales and revenues

Estimates put Kindle sales somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000, with revenues in the neighborhood of $153 million, less than 1% of Amazon’s total sales, but profitable nonetheless.

Target market

Some of libraries’ best customers are Kindle owners. Kindle appeals to mature dedicated readers, who like its convenience and its free wireless access. Amazon is likely to continue to focus on them, and while they won’t dramatically drive adoption, the Kindle is converting some very dedicated book lovers. Still, the majority of consumers buy fewer than five books a year; why would they want a Kindle?

If not the Kindle, what will be the game changer?

It’s all about mobile phones. Already a disruptive technology, they’re likely to emerge as the preferred e-readers. Stanza, the open standard e-book reader available on iPhones has been downloaded more than 1.3 million times, and over 5 million (mostly public domain) e-books have been downloaded with it. Stanza turns an iPhone into a book reader with one-handed page turning. A backpacker in a dark tent can consult snippets from Rough Guide on her backlit phone. Google Book Search gives owners of iPhones and Android devices access to over 1.5 million public-domain books.

According to The Economist, it’s “only a matter of time until absolutely all books become available, and properly formatted, for mobile phones.” In fact, The Economist predicts “that, eventually, only books that have value as souvenirs, gifts or artefacts will remain bound in paper.… Newspapers and magazines are on the same trajectory.”

We’re not there yet, though. E-books still account for less than 1% of book publishers’ revenues, and publishers remain wedded to DRM. Many experts believe that not technology, but DRM, is the major barrier to e-book adoption.

And The New York Times reminds us that “nothing ever replaces anything. E-book readers won’t replace books. The iPhone won’t replace e-book readers. Everything just splinters. They will all thrive, serving their respective audiences. [But] … If the Kindle’s popularity keeps growing, then it may be remembered as the spark that finally ignites mainstream e-books.”

Implications for libraries

Kindle owners are some of our best customers. They need to be able to borrow e-books from their libraries, and they need to be able to do it soon—before they abandon us. Early on, Amazon had no services at all for libraries; then they allowed ordering. Now Amazon offers a whole range of library services.

Amazon needs to make a library model available for Kindle e-books and libraries need to develop models in response to this. Ideally, libraries would come forward and strongly request a suitable model from Amazon. The bottom line is that if I want an e-book for my Kindle, I should be able to download it with my library card—either from Amazon using the library budget, or from the library. Libraries need to move past their hard-copy ownership model. A cooperative relationship between libraries and Amazon based on the Kindle would greatly benefit both.

Editor's note: I'll vigorously disagree with much of this commentary, including  the notion that a Kindle owner "should be able to download [ebooks]...from Amazon using the library budget." You can't walk into a bookstore and say "I want to read that book, so charge it to the library." How is this different? Libraries buy resources that serve the community; they're not and shouldn't be free bookstores. As you might expect, I also object to the mercantilistic "customers" and wonder whether libraries should sign up for yet another DRM-heavy technology where libraries are renting content.

Sources

Other commentaries on ebook readers

  Kindle 2 notes 

  • Some Kindle users are upset that the new model lacks an SD slot--and also that it uses a non-removable battery. Amazon calls these improvements.

  • Amazingly, the Authors Guild claimed that Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature is copyright infringement: That reading a book out loud is creating a derivative work. Since Macintosh OS X, Windows Vista and Windows XP all come with built-in text-to-speech software that can read any text aloud (and Adobe Reader includes text-to-speech features for PDF documents), this is either an astonishing new claim or Authors Guild has a bunch of bigger lawsuits we don't know about. (Free Linux text-to-speech software is also readily available, while Authors Guild is lining up its suits.) (Disturbingly, Amazon caved, disabling the feature at publisher request.)
  • Engadget reviewed the device in some depth (but without extended use), concluding that most ergonomic issues with the Kindle 1 have been resolved and that the new version is noticeably faster and easier to read.
  • Andy Greenberg at Forbes reviewed it on its release date--and while he finds the device "an impressively sleek piece of gadgetry," he also found this:
    But after a few hours with Amazon's pretty new device, I found something surprising: For all its slender good looks, the new Kindle doesn't feel as natural for reading as its strangely shaped predecessor.

To Greenberg, the new "iPod-like" shape is less comfortable as a paperback replacement. He found the readability and speed "barely distinguishable" from the Kindle 1.

  • Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post finds the Kindle 2 a "far friendlier machine" than the original Kindle, says the speedup feels notable, finds the new device much better for showing pictures--and focuses on the extent to which DRM makes Kindle ebooks inferior to (often cheaper) paperbacks. In a separate blog piece, he notes some his issues with the device, even while noting that he could easily lose himself in a book read on the Kindle 2. He notes that the page delay is still significant (1.3 seconds by his timing) and that the combination of DRM and a totally Kindle-centric ebook format hasn't gotten any better.

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