E-ink and Device Dependency
Jun. 2nd, 2011 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alanajoliA couple of articles caught my attention lately, one courtesy of Hippo tech columnist (and old writer buddy of mine) John (Jack) Andrews (who's over on twitter as @citizenjaq). Jack tackles the whole LCD vs. e-ink phenomenon that's happening as tablets get more and more popular. I've expressed my preferences here before: I don't like to read on an LCD screen if I can avoid it. It takes something that really captivates me to get me to sit and read it in full on my computer screen. Before I got my nook, I'd print out a manuscript or e-galley to read. (Having read physical manuscripts for this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, I can safely say it's something I hadn't missed!) Before my nice little, one real function e-ink device, e-books were a pain. Now? Love them! I'm actually buying them preferentially these days, in part to save on shelf space and in part because they're easier.
But I get that the multi-function tablets are the wave of the future. I suspect that a tablet, or a tablet's successor, will eventually replace my net book, since they give the appearance of being better at the things the I had understood net book was designed to be good at (eg. streaming media). Jack's article gives me some hope for the e-ink resurgence, though -- and, as I've posited before, it may depend on getting that color e-ink working.
Given the way my e-book reading pattern followed my purchase of a device, the other article that caught my eye didn't surprise me, but it did make me stop to think for a moment. Gideon Spainer at the online London Evening Standard shows how the release of new devices creates a huge uptick in e-book sales. He seems to be cautioning that e-book sales depend on these new devices being released -- and, given the attitudes about technology that consumers tend to have (i.e. new gadgets are shiny!), I think he's partly right.
But I also think the chart in the article that shows these sales figures has a general shape of going upward. Even if no new devices were released (not likely to happen, given that B&N is shipping their new touchscreen e-ink nook today, according to their press release as covered by SlashGear), e-books are still selling more copies than they were in 2007. Maybe the upswing in sales isn't as much between nifty new products, but the general trend is still an increase -- and I don't think that's likely to change any time soon.
But I get that the multi-function tablets are the wave of the future. I suspect that a tablet, or a tablet's successor, will eventually replace my net book, since they give the appearance of being better at the things the I had understood net book was designed to be good at (eg. streaming media). Jack's article gives me some hope for the e-ink resurgence, though -- and, as I've posited before, it may depend on getting that color e-ink working.
Given the way my e-book reading pattern followed my purchase of a device, the other article that caught my eye didn't surprise me, but it did make me stop to think for a moment. Gideon Spainer at the online London Evening Standard shows how the release of new devices creates a huge uptick in e-book sales. He seems to be cautioning that e-book sales depend on these new devices being released -- and, given the attitudes about technology that consumers tend to have (i.e. new gadgets are shiny!), I think he's partly right.
But I also think the chart in the article that shows these sales figures has a general shape of going upward. Even if no new devices were released (not likely to happen, given that B&N is shipping their new touchscreen e-ink nook today, according to their press release as covered by SlashGear), e-books are still selling more copies than they were in 2007. Maybe the upswing in sales isn't as much between nifty new products, but the general trend is still an increase -- and I don't think that's likely to change any time soon.
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Date: 2011-06-03 07:22 pm (UTC)Oddly, ebook purchases have meant that I lust even more after good print books - a beautiful Hamlet folio, the wonderful print editions of Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen, that sort of thing. At the same time, I'm much less likely to buy a mass market paperback if there's an e-equivalent. Are you feeling the same thing?
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Date: 2011-06-03 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:43 pm (UTC)My e-reader is an old Sony I got off eBay, and until very recently, I only used it to catch up on public domain classics. I actually purchased my very first e-book just the other week. (It's by another old buddy of ours, Eli Pariser, called The Filter Bubble, is about how personalization on the Web restricts rather than expands the information we have access to, and has been pimped in a previous edition of my column.)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 10:18 pm (UTC)Have you checked out the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/)? Also free stuff, but newer than public domain.
I've not started reading Eli's book, but I've been following its progress as its gotten press coverage. That's often the way I deal with nonfiction I'm interested in: I read the reviews and excerpts and wander through life about half-informed. :)
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Date: 2011-06-06 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-07 09:46 pm (UTC)