"Friction" is why e-books adoption is slow

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

My prediction is still that unless a magic wand appears that takes your print book and makes it digital fast, for free and at your convenience the way cdex say takes your cd and makes it mp3, only strong external pressure from some digitizing behemoth (Google, Amazon, national library...) will lead to widespread adoption of ebooks in the near future.

I think that, as with MP3s, if the public demands it, the industry will provide it. After all, books are already being created in digital files for printing... creating an e-book format wouldn't be that much more work. Publishers simply haven't seen evidence of enough consumer demand yet, to offset the additional cost (manpower, time, infrastructure, etc) of doing it. When they think they can make money from it, they'll do it.

Originally Posted by jswinden

What needs to occur is a new eBook paradigm. A lot of you are comparing Apple's iPod and iTunes to eBook sales. Apple's is the exact paradigm from which the publishing industry must shift away. In the Apple paradigm, Apple sells specially formatted songs that play only on Apple software. In the Apple paradigm, you wind up with dozens of companies selling songs that play only on their software.

True. When most of us refer to Apple and iTunes, we are referring to iTunes' integration with iPods and standardization power, not the specific format. iPods also play universally-standardized MP3s, as well as iTunes' native format.

Originally Posted by jswinden

The publishing industry needs to shift toward a paradigm similar to HTML and web browsers...

Agreed here, too. The ePub format supported by the IDPF is essentially the system you're talking about, and it would accomplish the same goals.

Originally Posted by jswinden

I doubt this will ever happen without government intervention and arm twisting. With only one eBook markup language publishers would be more likely to publish books in this format. It would then be up to software developers to develop the eBook browser software that would enable us to read the eBooks. This would probably kill many companies like MobiPocket, but I don't care. There would be plenty of developers interested in developing eBook browsers for profit or for open source.

In fact, industry support, led by companies like Adobe (InDesign and Digital Editions) and Sony (Reader), suggests that ePub will be accepted as a more-or-less universal format, without government intervention (probably a good thing). Companies like MobiPocket can still survive as retailers, and they can adopt their readers to read ePub files, either for a small price, or for free (and make their money off of book sales).

Money could still be made from e-book reader SW, however, if the company has enough of a valued feature set to offer (indexing, bookmarking, image support, searching, highlighting, etc, etc) to make it worth paying for. Those who don't need all that can use freely-downloadable readers.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

Sadly, it promotes vendor lock-in. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the mass market here. That market requires a model that goes no further than "Plug this in here, Click that, and go read the book."

But isn't that what we ultimately want?

(Not the vendor lock in, but the frictionless delivery.)

But how to replicate that for all the PDAs, smart phones, UMPCs, and other dedicated reader units? How do you make it that frictionless when one company doesn't have all three pieces under its control. You'd need a device-configurable iTunes-like program that could support multiple content providers. I'm not sure I see how the market can prod the development of something like that.

You start with a standard format that everyone agrees to support, and can be read by whatever viewer application you happen to have on whatever device you use.

I'm not holding my breath...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Well, I'm thinking of all the landfills stuffed with little 5MB flash drives and USB keys that people purchased, transferred the contents to a computer or reader, and threw away as being too small for other uses. I think we sacrifice far too much for disposability now (one of the worst downsides of "frictionless" society).

I don't throw that stuff out.

(I have some ancient 6GB and 8GB hard drives in a box on a shelf. They got reformatted and used to back up various things I wanted to be sure I had copies of, like my eBooks directory. But I'm a tech, comfortable popping the hood and playing with hardware, and the drives are too small for most purposes.)

But if someone figures out how to encode the books onto those cardboard "gift cards" with a magnetic stripe on the back, something that's less wasteful and a bit more biodegradable, I'll be a lot more responsive to the idea.

Probably doable now, in theory. The issue is the capacity, and what, exactly, you'll use to read them.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

They want pathetic simplicity... the iTunes package. As hard as it might be for those of us in this forum to accept, it really does have to be that stoopid easy for everyone else.

I wouldn't mind it being that stoopid easy for us, too. I spend a fair amount of time massaging data to get it from one form to another, and would be just as happy to spend the time on other tasks.
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Dennis

[nekokami]

I agree that DRM and incompatable formats and ease of purchase are all problems, but I don't think they're the biggest problem.

Most people don't like reading from a computer screen. They cite discomfort sitting at a desk, or the heat of a laptop, or the glare of a screen, or the size of a PDA screen, or the short battery-life of all of these devices. "Fine," I can hear you say, "we have beautiful portable e ink devices with a great form-factor for reading and long-lasting batteries now." However, most people also won't pay $100+ for a device that only reads books. It takes a dedicated reader (like those who frequent this site) to be willing to drop that much cash for a device with only one function.

Until the usability of book-sized devices expands to be able to perform other functions and the batteries last all day without any special effort on the user's part, while the devices themselves stay at or below current low-end desktop system prices, I don't think ebooks will really take off. UMPCs are a step in the right direction, but the batteries don't last long enough and the screens are still uncomfortable for many people.

When we have a reasonably priced device that's about the size and weight of a trade paperback, with a reflective (probably front-lit) color screen that can handle full-motion video framerates and runs organizational software and a full-strength browser (even if it provides no other native software, people will be able to get what they want from Google Apps and similar), and a long-lasting battery, we'll probably see mass-market ebooks, and I'm willing to bet the format and DRM issues (and probably the price and availability issues) will be solved at the same time. At that point the market pressures will force a frictionless online retail experience to be developed and provided.

But as I've said elsewhere, I think it could happen immediately if either Apple or Nintendo were to jump into the ebook market, despite the shortcomings of the screens of their devices, simply because so many people have them. It would take a marketing push to promote ebooks targeted at the demographic that buys iPods and Nintendo DS units today, though. I think they missed a good bet by letting the Harry Potter books go by. The next contender might be the final book in the Eragon series.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Probably doable now, in theory. The issue is the capacity, and what, exactly, you'll use to read them.

It continually surprises me that no one's created and sold a magnetic stripe card reader for PCs. For small files, it would seem like a no-brainer easy way to transport data... even if only a write-once device. Save it in a box, and when you're done with it, shred it.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

It continually surprises me that no one's created and sold a magnetic stripe card reader for PCs. For small files, it would seem like a no-brainer easy way to transport data... even if only a write-once device. Save it in a box, and when you're done with it, shred it.

Whatever for?

No one has created a magnetic stripe card reader for PCs because nothing is provided on those cards you need to read on a PC.

I don't know offhand what the capacity of one of those stripes is, but I suspect it's too small for any application we have in mind.

And you still have the question of what creates the cards.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I think they missed a good bet by letting the Harry Potter books go by. The next contender might be the final book in the Eragon series.

I don't believe "they" passed them up. As far as I know, Rowling refused to license electronic editions.
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Dennis

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I don't believe "they" passed them up. As far as I know, Rowling refused to license electronic editions.
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Dennis

Which only means that she didn't get any money for them. Unprotected versions were immediately available. Given the demand for the books, I think that's a clear case of cutting off the nose to spite the face. Legal ebooks wouldn't have hurt her paper sales and would have provided an additional revenue stream. Refusing to license them simply meant anyone who wanted one would have to turn to other options.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by nekokami

When we have a reasonably priced device that's about the size and weight of a trade paperback, with a reflective (probably front-lit) color screen that can handle full-motion video framerates and runs organizational software and a full-strength browser (even if it provides no other native software, people will be able to get what they want from Google Apps and similar), and a long-lasting battery, we'll probably see mass-market ebooks, and I'm willing to bet the format and DRM issues (and probably the price and availability issues) will be solved at the same time. At that point the market pressures will force a frictionless online retail experience to be developed and provided.

I respectfully disagree. People still buy expensive iPods when there are cheaper things out there. The content is the issue. Were ebooks to be available at the push of a button from your print book the way mp3's are from your cd's, Sony and other devices would sell at 300$ easily.

The key is content, free or cheap the way is with music. Remember that all the statistics show that roughly on average about 0-5% of every iPod music is purchased as e-music, the rest is ripped, downloaded, shared and the like.

When the same will be true for ebooks with pretty much any book you care, the devices will fly off the shelf. It does not matter if a cheap multipurpose device that can read books will be out there if the ebooks are not there (or are crippled and expensive which from a mass market perspective is the same)

I agree that this picture is not in the interest of content creators by and large, but that's the way e-content developed accidentally or not (do not forget that all the big hard-tech companies, internet providers, internet enablers and others have a big vested interest in bountiful cheap or free content - why do you think that all RIAA, Disney and other big money content creator firms have not succeeded in doing anything about piracy; pass a law allowing them to sue your ISP or Google for infringement and you would see what happens - but of course such a law has no chance of passing since Google and the rest have far deeper pockets and stronger lobbyists), and I really do not see things changing.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Which only means that she didn't get any money for them. Unprotected versions were immediately available. Given the demand for the books, I think that's a clear case of cutting off the nose to spite the face. Legal ebooks wouldn't have hurt her paper sales and would have provided an additional revenue stream. Refusing to license them simply meant anyone who wanted one would have to turn to other options.

Those unprotected editions were the result of people scanning the books to create an etext. Lots of that goes on, and there are newsgroups essentially devoted to it.

I even got amusing spam offering to sell me an electronic version of one of the Potter books. A whois on the website yielded name, address, and phone number of the seller. The website was gone withing a couple of days, which indicates I'm not the only one who did that lookup.

And you can argue that Rowling was foolish to refuse to license electronic editions. Quite possibly. I don't know her reasoning.

The point was simply that it wasn't ebook publishers who passed on the opportunity, it was the author.
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Dennis

[mogui]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

I agree. That's why I think the best way to ease them along is with baby steps. Frankly, I think if e-books were delivered through dirt-cheap, physical USB keys and sold like pbooks, they would have higher adoption rates than they do now. That way you're only asking the mass market to accept one new thing at a time. Yeah, it's totally antithetical to what e-books are all about, and I'm not in any way suggesting it (before a couple of dozen people post that it's a stupid idea) but it would probably work.

It is an interesting idea -- neither good nor bad, and worth playing with. This scheme, whether CDs, SD cards, USB flash or even some high-density bar code within the book itself, would permit a transitional phase for brick and mortar retailers to adapt themselves and their customers to the coming changes in content delivery. Even taking a pBook to the counter and asking them to install the eBook version on your reader would be a start. What could it cost to make a read-only micro-SD card of maybe 128MB?

In another part of this thread, the need is expressed for an end-to-end solution whereby the customer can visit a website, buy an eBook, and have it automagically appear on his reader. I think Palm devices are probably closest to having that from at least two sources because they have published their API long enough for 3rd party support to develop. Maybe it would be a good thing if Palm made a reader-sized PDA. Mobipocket runs well on Palms, and so do a lot of other reader apps. With the existing Palm user base there would be an instant market. The world needs more end-to-end solutions to broaden the market for eBooks.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Whatever for? No one has created a magnetic stripe card reader for PCs because nothing is provided on those cards you need to read on a PC.

I don't know offhand what the capacity of one of those stripes is, but I suspect it's too small for any application we have in mind.

And you still have the question of what creates the cards.

If a card could hold just a few megabytes of data, it would be enough to put an e-book on (or, for that matter, a reader). And even if a magnetic stripe could not hold that much, there are other embedded memory technologies that might do better. Point is, not every memory system has to be huge... there is room for small memory-capacity devices. Just don't use large capacity devices for small memory, then throw them away.

(Suppose a card held a book, and could be read on a device it was inserted into, but not copied? Even publishers could get behind that, because it would prevent most copy-theft. That's something that could catch on.)

Anyway, I do not think hardware is much of a problem at this point. There are enough choices to render it a non-friction issue for most people (you like Sony's reader, she likes the Iliad, I like my PDA, he uses his laptop). And as I've stressed before, people get used to what they want to get used to. If they want e-books, they'll get used to reading them on some hardware or other. Not that hardware won't get better, but I do not believe it's holding anyone back except the really, really picky reader.

The high-friction point is still awareness, or lack thereof.

[happyreader]

Unfortunately, there is the friction of being a Mac user. No Mobipocket, no Microsoft Reader, no Sony Connect.

And then there is the friction of the reading devices. I bought a number of Palm Reader books in the early 2000s. Now I use the Sony Reader instead of the Palm for portable reading. And that entails rebuying the books assuming that they're even available. And I don't want to do that.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by happyreader

Unfortunately, there is the friction of being a Mac user. No Mobipocket, no Microsoft Reader, no Sony Connect.

So don't use a Mac for that purpose. I have both a Mac and a PC - I use whatever is the appropriate tool for the job that I'm doing. When it comes to eBooks, the PC is the better tool.

Why don't you do the same?