For gadget lovers, several factors are converging to make ereading devices alluring this holiday season. Forrester Research estimates 900,000 ereaders will sell in the U.S. in November and December.
More such devices are challenging Amazon's Kindle, notably the Nook from Barnes & Noble Inc. Sony also recently launched three new versions of its Reader, which will be soldin dedicated ebook sections of Best Buy Co. stores. Already these devices are beginning to sell out.
There's also more selection of books for the devices, with most popular publishers now selling ebooks. Prices for ebook readers are dropping. Amazon recently cut the price of the international Kindle to $259 from $279, while Sony sells a new entry-level model for $199. A refurbished first-generation Kindle retails on Amazon for $219. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores are also discounting prices on best-selling ebook titles to $10 to lure more readers.
Most ebooks are yours at least for the life of your device, though some models let you borrow books for a short period of time from libraries or a friend. Yet, it's unclear how--and what sort of device--most people will be comfortable reading ebooks.
Today, LibreDigital Inc., a distributor of ebooks for publishers, says the overwhelming majority of ebook buyers are women who read ebooks on an ordinary computer screen, mostly between 4PM and 11PM. A growing number of readers are also perusing books on cell-phones.
Most of the current crop of dedicated ereading devices try to replicate the traditional reading experience with a screen that's about the size of a paperback novel that displays black-and-white (or, rather, dark grey and light grey) text and graphics.
The Beginnings of a Format War
The ebook market is caught up in a format war, with different companies limiting their devices to certain kinds of ebooks, with the file types such as .azw and mobipocket on the Kindle and .epub and Adobe Digital Editions on Sony. As a result, there's no guarantee an ebook bought from one online store will work on devices sold by a competitor. Remember the eight-track tapes of the past?
Sony has tried to differentiate itself in ebooks by supporting an open industry standard called Epub and digital-rights-management software from Adobe. Barnes & Noble recently said it will do the same. But Amazon, which dominates the ereader market, has so far shown no signs of changing from its own proprietary format. Amazon says it is working on making Kindle books play on more devices, including iPhones, BlackBerrys and PCs.
Next year, Apple Inc. is also expected to debut a tablet device that can be used for reading, watching movies, surfing the Web and other interactive tasks.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2009