Random Acts of Mind by Dones

Note to Readers: This is my final research paper for my Interactive Communication Form class. I thought I’d share it with you. -D

Electronic book (e-book) readers have long been a technological goal for hardware manufacturers and publishing companies. The benefits would seem obvious: convenience, reduced waste, and easy distribution. Using an e-book reader, a user could carry and read everything from the daily newspaper to War & Peace on the same lightweight device. Not only would this added convenience lead to increased readership, it would reduce the need for paper and paper waste, and potentially encourage literacy throughout the world. Users with visual impairments can even increase font size on most devices. The reality, however, is that e-book readers have not yet overcome some fundamental technological and social barriers to achieve market dominance. Consumers will only make the transition from paper to display when developers are able to address or remove these barriers.

What are E-books?
Electronic books are merely text files which contain all the words and formatting of the original book. Some file formats also include graphic images and charts from the paper version, but e-book transcribers like Project Gutenberg typically digitize only text and simple formatting. Free e-books can be downloaded from sites like Project Gutenberg, which relies on volunteers to transcribe public domain books into digital form (“Main Page”). Digital versions of copyrighted materials, when available, are sold at publisher websites like Penguin.com, or at online retailers like Amazon.com or eBooks.com.
The convenience of e-books surfaces when they are read from a reader device. Without a portable device, the only way to read e-books is on a computer screen. While technically possible, this process is hardly similar to reading a paper book. A laptop computer may be more mobile than a desktop, but neither can compare with a six-inch paperback. Therefore, manufacturers have been working to shrink devices nearer paperback size, at the same time reducing the functionality from that of a full-featured laptop to a little tablet with a battery, a display, a stick of memory, and a few buttons to turn electronic ‘pages.’

E-Book Reader Technology
The first ubiquitous devices that could run e-books were personal digital assistants, or PDAs, which had the ability to display text files. The portability of these devices is one reason why they were so popular, but as e-book readers, the number one issue with PDAs was the liquid crystal display. As with other dedicated e-book readers using the same display technology, users found LCDs did not provide enough contrast or resolution to combat eyestrain. In 2001, Coalition for Networked Information director Clifford Lynch laid out some specifics for displays that will provide a reading experience more similar to paper:
While the resolution of book reader appliances is sometimes better than the 72 dots-per-inch (dpi) that is the industry standard for monitors, it isn’t that much better in the devices on the market today… Easy reading will probably require at least 200-300 dpi, plus some optical properties that are closer to paper than today’s screens (Lynch).
Chief among the optical qualities Lynch wrote about are contrast and reflectivity. Contrast refers to the difference between the light background and the dark text. This is a balancing act: while non-backlit LCDs typically don’t have enough contrast, backlit LCDs end up with backgrounds that are too white. As HP Labs’ Tanya Almeida stated in BBC’s “Click” television program, they have had success with adding a paper-like texture pattern to the display’s background. “It’s partly giving your eyes something to focus on so having a slight texture to the background, having a colouring so there’s not too much contrast” appears to reduce eyestrain (Kelly). Display reflectivity is the final piece of the display puzzle; in order to be easy on the eyes, an e-book reader should be highly readable in low light as well as sunlight. For this reason, it’s actually better to forego backlights: not only do they cause too much eyestrain in low light, but most LCD displays appear washed out in direct sunlight. The backlight also draws additional power that drains battery life.

Enter E-Ink
The newest display technology to be employed in e-book readers is a thin film-based display called E-Ink that eliminates all of the display challenges listed above—although it also creates a couple new barriers to successful e-book readers. Developed by the creatively-named E-Ink Corporation, the most advanced product called Vizplex imaging film is being used in recent e-book reader devices, such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader. Aside from the optical benefits, the big payoff to this new generation of display is that it can display a page of text or greyscale graphics without using additional power: electricity is only needed during a page refresh or transition, so the battery isn’t constantly being drained during use (“Technology”). The main drawbacks to E-Ink are cost and refresh time. The Kindle retails for $399 (Kindle), the Sony Reader for $299 (“PRS-505”). E-Ink’s display refreshes in as little as a quarter of a second (“Products”), but that is still over ten times slower than an LCD (“Monitor”).
Several manufacturers have brought e-book readers to market with varying success, but none have heretofore reached the popularity of the paper book. Spencer Kelly points out in “Click” that “the book does seem hard to beat. After all it has a drop-proof chassis, an operating system that never crashes and very low battery consumption – none” (Kelly). While the technology has been catching up to the technical requirements of reading, designers still face the daunting prospect of creating a device that a person can ‘curl up with in bed,’ as Levy points out (Levy 4).
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos thinks he has the solution with the Kindle device. As he wrote in an open letter to investors,
We knew Kindle would have to get out of the way, just like a physical book, so readers could become engrossed in the words and forget they’re reading on a device. We also knew we shouldn’t try to copy every last feature of a book—we could never out-book the book. We’d have to add new capabilities—ones that could never be possible with a traditional book (Bezos 1, his emphasis).
The Kindle success, then, will not be measured by market share versus the paper book, but how it ‘gets out of the way’ compared to other e-book readers. Since the Kindle was just released in Fall 2007, industry sales data is unavailable at this time. However, Kindle higher cost does pay for some novel features, such as a full QWERTY keyboard, and the real innovation: wireless downloads. In a huge leap forward, instead of requiring a hardwired connection to transfer new e-books onto the device, the Kindle purchase price includes a lifetime service plan called ‘Whispernet’ (Levy 1). This service uses cell phone data transmission to download over 110,000 books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs, but it also permits the user to browse the Kindle store online and make purchases right from the device (Bezos 1). This system not only removes the need for a computer, but it allows users to shop, purchase, and read e-books in the same places they could make a mobile phone call. This new wireless marketplace approach to e-books gives Kindle the upper hand for now among competitors. As Levy puts it, Kindle does disappear as a device and “leads you down the rabbit-hole” (Levy 4).

But What About Bookworms?
In response to Levy’s lead article for Newsweek about e-books and “The Future of Reading,” as his article is titled, the letters to the editor were mixed. One stated that books are “just going through a transition for the larger benefit of all book addicts,” while another thinks that students would see a major reduction in the weight of their backpacks if all textbooks were in e-book form. Another suggested that the real innovation would be displays that support full-color photos and illustrations. Others, however, were less supportive, exemplified by reader Beth Papworth:
Pointing and clicking will never hold the same satisfaction as browsing the shelves at a library or bookstore, nor will the Kindle be able to capture the feeling you get as the pages dwindle, and you don’t know whether to hurry up to find out how it ends or slow down and savor every word. I plan on sticking with glue, ink and paper. (“A New Kind” 1).
Paper books can engage all five senses. Readers feel the texture and thickness of the paper as they turn each page, hearing the spine crack or the pages ruffle as they return to the place of their bookmark or dog-ear. They see the font and format of the words on the page, naturally, but they also smell the binding and ink, and even taste the paper dust as they lick their fingers to separate pages.

The Next Step
This kind of engagement can never be fully mimicked or even supplanted in an electronic device. Certainly, there will be some purists and enthusiasts who will never embrace the newer technology, just as some authors still write novels longhand or on a typewriter. However, the progress of technology marches on. Once e-book readers develop to the point where most people are willing to embrace the convenience, the transition will happen rapidly, over the course of a generation or so. The last main technological barriers are battery life and support for color photos and illustrations. When they are finally surmounted, only the social barriers will remain: cost and usability.
As the technology matures, costs will inevitably drop, but there will always be a minimum cost of entry to purchase the device. Early adopters will naturally disregard price for the most part, but the path to mainstream e-book usage will likely be through the education system. At some point, the cost of paper textbooks will approach that of e-book readers and e-book titles (or vice versa), and school boards and universities will begin offering e-books as alternatives. Later, e-books will be fully adopted in education as colleges, universities, and private schools begin subsidizing devices as competitive measures, and public school districts receive funds to make initial purchases of devices for entire schools.
Once this adoption process starts to snowball, the usability barrier will disappear: as educational usage increases, manufacturers will perfect interfaces that any ten-year-old can use, and every high school graduate will have nearly a decade of experience with the e-book medium. E-book readers will become the graduation present of choice, and graduates will begin using e-books in their daily reading, even if their parents and grandparents are still buying paper products. Those grandparents will be the next wave of adopters, incidentally, as their eyesight fails and devices with arthritis-friendly interfaces come to market. As the populace ages, graduates entering the workforce will begin using e-book readers in the office, and inevitably the use of e-book readers will be as ubiquitous as cell phones are today. At that point, perhaps libraries will become museums, preserving the paper history that Gutenberg began.

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Works Cited

Bezos, Jeffrey P. Letter to Shareholders. PDF format. April 2008: pp. 1-5. 30 April 2008
<http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/digital/fiona/
general/2007letter.pdf>.

Kelly, Spencer, presenter. “The Latest Chapter of the E-Book.” Click. BBC News. Last updated 27 March 2006. 30 April 2008 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4849368.stm>.

Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store.” Amazon.com. 1 May 2008 <http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-com-kindle/dp/B000FI73MA>.

Levy, Steven. “Reinventing the Book – The Future of Reading.” Newsweek. 26 November 2007: pp. 1-7. 3 April 2008 <http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983>.

Lynch, Clifford. “The Battle to Define The Future of the Book in the Digital World.” First Monday. June 2001: 6:6. 30 April 2008 <http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_6/lynch/index.html>.

“Main Page.” Project Gutenberg. 3 April 2008 <http://www.gutenberg.org>.

“Monitor Buying Guide – CNET Reviews.” CNET. 30 April 2008 <http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7610_7-5084364-3.html>.

“A New Kind of Reading Experience – Newsweek Letters to the Editor.” Newsweek. 10 December 2007: pp. 1-2. 3 April 2008 <http://www.newsweek.com/id/73399>.

“Products – E Ink Imaging Film.” E Ink Corporation. 3 April 2008 <http://www.eink.com/products/matrix/imaging_film.html>.

“PRS-505/LC | Reader Digital Book – Dark Blue.” SonyStyle. 1 May 2008 <http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?
catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665245740>.

“Technology.” E Ink Corporation. 1 May 2008 <http://www.eink.com/technology/index.html>.

Other Resources

Daviss, Bennett. “Paper Goes Electric”. New Scientist. Issue 2186: 15 May 1999. 30 April 2008
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16221864.700.html>.

Italie, Hillel. “Kindle Helps Tiny E-Book Market.” Associated Press. New York: 3 April 2008. 3 April 2008 <http://ap.google.com/article/
ALeqM5iPKa0kc4fgtRyVuooO6UF9lv9liQD8VQJ3R02>.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 am and is filed under Books, Current Events, Internet, School, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.