E-book readers – are they the new iPods?

E-book readers are probably the most talked about devices since the introduction of the iPod. Quite simply, e-book readers are revolutionizing the book industry! But e-book readers are in no way eliminating traditional books; they are just updating them for a new generation.

Even in their most basic form, e-book readers are fantastic. They are essentially small, single purpose computers but they are starting to gain momentum and becoming an increasingly popular way for readers to access digital content.

The main advantages of e-book readers are threefold:

1. Their portability – they are small and lightweight
2. The ability for the users to search and find specific text or pages quickly
3. The capacity to store multiple, literally thousands, of books on one device

E-book readers are particularly good for students who need to carry around a lot of textbooks and other reading material. But e-book readers are, at the time of writing, fairly expensive and this is a problem that needs to be solved.

There are many types of device that are said to be e-book readers (even an ipod touch can be used as an e-book reader) but the best available today use a technology called e-paper (electronic paper) and this powers most of the top models such as the Sony Ereader and the Kindle. It’s these improvements in display technology that account for the fact that e-book readers are finally becoming popular and more mass market in their appeal.

Bespoke dedicated e-book readers are interesting, but many believe the future lies in rich, advanced e-books and other publication formats, and the devices which will support them. Amazon’s Kindle book reader even permits the user to instantly access digital books, magazines and news papers through a wireless connection.

But while the environmental advantages of e-book readers are great (no more chopped trees or disappearing rain forests), the cost of being an early adopter is still too high for most people. To lower the entry costs some innovative payment plans are needed (as happened with mobile phone plans and free phones) so perhaps some kind of subscription format is the way forward rather than a large up front cash payment at the moment.

As mentioned before, Sony and Amazon are the market leaders, but other companies such as Be-book are producing interesting devices. Based on many reviews and what’s to come, the Kindle 2 is still the standard to which all e-book readers will be compared and instant wireless connection will be a must if more e-book readers are to continue to take off.

But let’s not forget the flip side of the argument for e-book readers. Whilst e-book readers are potentially a great space-saver, carrying around a fairly fragile, expensive gadget in place of a $10 paperback (which can be sat on, thrown in a bag, and even get a bit wet without any real risk) just will not make any sense for many people. However there are more than enough tech friendly book obsessive’s out there to support this market for a long time to come.