I was reading
Jon Noring's take on $50 ebook readers. First, over the last few months, nobody has been talking about $50 tablet computers as Mr. Noring seems to allude to, but rather $50 dedicated ebook readers have been mentioned. There is a big difference in there in functions, form and price. For instance, a tablet computer needs a hard drive, an ebook reader does not, nor does it need as big of a battery, OS etc. A dedicated ebook reader does not even need PDA functions. So all of that can bring the costs down. At some point you need economies of scale to kick in, which I think will happen if the Chinese government proceeds with it's plan to put an ebook reader in the hands of all school children in China and eliminate paper textbooks.
So what do I consider the perfect form factor for an ebook reader?
I do not think you can have just one. I think ebook readers need to come in several sizes and several screen types (given the current technology). So it would be a bit like car models. The main thing is that it would be simple to use and download ebooks to it - as easy as an iPod.
Size: I see three basic sizes of ebook readers being available: 1.) pocket sized, like a PDA (this might be the $50 device) the desired function here is portability; 2.) mid sized, about the same size as a trade paperback book with a screen the size of a mass market book page - much like the size and weight of a
eBookwise 1150. This would be a very handy size for pleasure reading around the home; 3.) Large - with a screen about the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, this is a nice size for eMagazines and newspapers, double column formats and technical papers.
Ergonomics: For the mid-sized reader the ergonomics of the ebookWise 1150 seem really good. Slightly different arrangements might be needed for the other sizes.
Screens: It might be that you need a couple of different readers with different screens. This would probably amount to a choice of something like e-paper type screens which are high res grey scale but not backlit (good for reading outdoors and in well lighted rooms) and high res color screens backlit for reading in darker rooms and indoors.
Easy: The eBookwise 1150 is about the easiest to use reader yet available. But judging from the questions on the
Fictionwise mailing list it is still confusing some people, although a lot of that confusion seems to be revolving around third party ebook library software for the PC and converting existing ebook collections into the Ebookwise format. The lesson here is that any dedicated reader has to be really-really easy to use. It has to be easy to both buy commercial ebooks, but also easy to import free public domain ebooks like
Project Gutenberg,
Blackmask and
Manybooks.
Ebook Format: Open Reader is probably the best solution. I should not have to think about format or conversions. Period. I do think the large reader detailed above, should probably also be able to read PDF files. A lot of technical papers are published in PDF and it will not be going away soon.
What do you think? Leave a comment on what you think I left out. Remember we are designing for the masses here.
