The e-book battle heats up as e-readers take sides
Another Amazon Kindle competitor has unveiled its plans for the future. And like Plastic Logic's e-reader, the device will feature Barnes & Noble's e-book store.
The Kindle has even more competitors.
(Credit: Amazon)When Irex Technologies unveils its consumer e-reader later this year, it will include Barnes & Noble's e-books, Irex said in a statement Monday.
Barnes & Noble's store currently features more than 750,000 titles, and it expects that library of available titles to increase to more than one million within the next year. The full library will be available for download on Irex's e-reader.
That news followed a report earlier this month that Irex's new e-reader will sport an 8.1-inch touch screen and 3G wireless connectivity. The device's touch screen will be controlled with a stylus instead of a user's fingers.
"With our comprehensive e-bookstore and feature-rich e-reader application, Barnes & Noble is delivering not just a product, but a promise: to provide people with access to the books they love--on any platform, in any place, and at any time," Barnes & Noble President William J. Lynch said in a statement.
Barnes & Noble's strategy focuses on maintaining its store and partnering with hardware makers. Aside from availability on the Irex e-reader, as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch through Apple's App Store, Barnes & Noble's store will also come bundled in Plastic Logic's upcoming e-reader.
Amazon offers its own e-reader software in Apple's App Store, allowing both iPhone and iPod Touch users to read its e-books on their handsets. And of course, Amazon's e-books can also be found on the company's market-leading Kindle.
The success of the Barnes & Noble e-book library will largely depend on whether or not the devices using its store will boast the same level of usability as the Kindle. If they do, it's possible that Barnes & Noble will be able to capture significant market share, thanks to its availability on so many e-readers. If they don't, Barnes & Noble's store might lose its stride. And all that fails to consider Sony's Reader--another contender that could emerge as a major player as the market matures.
Suddenly, the e-book market is becoming an exciting space to keep an eye on.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
For the rest of us, we don't need another gadget. Now that hardware is getting small and powerful enough, they really need to focus on smart & intuitive ways to incorporate functions into "smart phones" (which should probably be named "palmtops" or something similar, since the phone aspect will only be one portion).
No more standalone GPS, no more standalone game systems, no more standalone media players, no more standalone e-readers. Focus on getting it onto one device, and doing it *well*. In the past "all in one" combo devices have done crappy jobs at everything, but we're at a point where the hardware isn't so much the obstacle as the actual layout.
Considering what the iphone, pre, and android have done in terms of intuitiveness, whoever can smoothly incorporate additional features will be looking at a gold mine.
Another question I have is where else can you purchase your books from on this device? Are you locked into just the one publisher or can you download a book from anywhere you like?
Personally I would rather buy a book reader that could take memory cards. Low capacity cards would be pretty cheap. You could purchase them on-line or from a brick and mortar book store. Once the data was copied to your book reader it would only last a year before you would have to reinstall it from the memory card. The card could be sold or traded once you had read the book. Heck, they could even zap the memory card after an install if you wanted to keep the book on your reader permanently.
There has to be some way to return the ownership rights back to the consumer who purchases the book. Since they are not lowering the price of the ebooks, they could at least spend the money on a solution.
My price point is probably about $200 for a 8.5x11 screen. It needs to have e-book, document and PDF support, as well as the ability to sync with a computer.
By the time this occurs, I hope the publishers will stop running plays from the music industry 1999 play book, and focus on the big picture.
Every day I see school children of all ages hauling HUGE backpacks to school, loaded up with pounds and pounds of text books. Imagine if at the beginning of a school year, kids could just download all of their textbooks into one reader like this. Poof - one small tablet to carry to school. The tablets could be adapted so they could allow kids to write notes and store them in memory on the tablet as well, reducing the need for paper/pen in classes. This would be a HUGE thing for schools and kids alike, and would greatly reduce the costs of text books, saving the schools money.
I would never consider an ebook reader for myself until they're half the price or less than they are now, and, they offer color screens for magazine photos to display along with text. But they're ready now, for the educational market, and I'm really surprised the folks who make them haven't jumped on it at all. DUH. Now watch - they'll read this and make millions, while I don't have health insurance. ARGH.
but with 3G, Bluetooth and other
As usual the companies are inventing the saddle without really looking at the horse.
www.Libertynewsprint.com
- by sehgalamit September 21, 2009 5:34 AM PDT
- Check out this site www.bookase.com, A price comparison search engine for books and textbooks. It searches for the lowest prices among the major online stores worldwide and also offers discount coupons. You can also choose among various shipping options to calculate the lowest price
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