eReaders
I think the black and white e-readers will around at least for the foreseeable future. Although the more expensive tablets have more power and function, the e-readers fill a distinct market and because they are small (like a book) and relatively inexpensive, people will use them in their targeted limited function as a reading device and continue to use a laptop, tablet or desktop for more complex functions (keyboards, heavy internet access/shopping/reading, spreadsheets, document) . I think the timing of the availability of e-readers, before tablets, was critical to creating the demand for e-reader devices. If tablets had come first and people had started using e-reading applications on them first, I don’t think dedicated e-readers would have successful in the marketplace.
I read the e-reader comparisons and found the one athttp://chamberfour.com/ereader-comparison of particular interest. It was advocating the Kobo Touch e-reader over the Nook and the Kindle models primarily because of the proprietary nature of the Nook and Kindle platforms. Apparently the Kindle Touch and Nook Touch are roughly equivalent to the Kobo Touch in size and function. The Kobo is less expensive but has some small ads which make up for the price difference. However the Chamber Four review had an excellent discussion of e-book formats and security systems and Kobo is attractive to me because Kobo offers the most open e-book environment1 . This article points out that Kobo’s e-books can be used across multiple platforms. This is opposed to Amazon e-books which can only be read by the Kindle devices and Barnes and Noble e-books which can only be read by their Nook devices. A point that this article makes that if Barnes and Noble goes out of business, the Nook owners will probably lose their Nook books.2 The proprietary platform problem was very apparent to me when I bought my wife an early model of the Kindle and then found that the Listen Up Vermont (a free download capability to most Vermont Libraries) service only had books in the open platform format, not Kindle. It took away most of the value and excitement of e-books when we found that we could not read the libraries’ free copies of books. Now Listen Up Vermont provides books in both Kindle and EPUB formats. But the inflexibility and proprietary nature of e-book formats and the Digital Rights Management security is a major problem now when someone tries to lend a book to another person and can’t because of the built in security system.
With regard to the Author Guild’s case against Kindle and e-books, I have switched positions a couple of times. On one hand I think that mechanical translation to verbal should be considered similar to the mechanized closed captioning of television shows for the hard of hearing. On the other hand, the expression of ideas is what is copyrighted and the audio form of communication is another form of expression which is different from the written document. If so, the publisher and/or author should agree to the additional form and possibly compensation. This is similar to a written works being made available in additional languages – these are additional forms of expression of the artist’s works and the copyright laws should apply. I would hope that publishers and authors would require no additional compensation for the mechanical reading of text in the same language, I have listened to many audio books and believe that there is a tremendous difference between the mechanical reading of text and the professional reading of the same text. If actors can’t add value to the author’s words than they shouldn’t get paid for it since they are not adding value other than availability. I think that it discrimination against the blind and elderly if they have to pay extra for verbal books in order to “read” a book, but I have no answer as to the right solution.
1 http://chamberfour.com/ereader-comparison/#ourpicks
2 http://chamberfour.com/ereader-comparison/#formats