What does Apple’s iPad offer eBook lovers?
Can Apple's iPad match the success of the iPod and iPhone? Photo: Apple
However despite my Mac fanboi credentials I’m a little unclear what the iPad offers eBook fans – details of the iBookstore are a little sketchy but on the hardware/capability front it’s not wowing me as a potential replacement for my trusty Sony Reader.
I can definitely see the potential offered by colour and media capabilities but a glossy backlit LED screen isn’t going to offer the same comfort as an E Ink based reader and the hyped 10 hour in-use battery life is a teeny fraction of what a dedicated reader will offer.
Sure, a backlit screen can be read in bed, by the small edition of a £6 pen light allows me to read my Sony in the dark and for a lot longer if the need arose.
On the matter of book availability – Apple’s press release talks of the ‘iBookstore’ which allows the downloading of eBooks straight to the device.
So far, so very Kindle.
However unlike Amazon’s closed format Kindle, Apple say the iPad will support the popular ePub format, opening the potential for books to be bought anywhere – though it’s important to note that getting files onto the iPod Touch and iPhone isn’t currently all that easy.
If Apple’s sensible and allows iPad owners to bring their own books to the device it could quickly become a major player in driving the take-up of eBooks, even if technology wise it has no real ‘right’ to do so.
Whatever hardware doubts I or other bloggers and journos have, Apple’s domination of the portable music industry suggests that some current eBook players are going to have a tough year.
As a gadget fanatic, on first impressions it looks very cool. However I share Martin’s concerns that a back lit screen could cause eye strain compared to a standard e reader.
It will be interesting to see what kind of price point the first generation of ipads are offered for, the presentation on Apple’s UK website goes to great pains to reassure viewers that they intend to make the product available to as many consumers as possible.
I have serious doubts whether anyone who has ever enjoyed reading a book on a real e-book reader with an e-Ink display would ever want to go back to the pain of reading longer texts on traditional backlit displays (such as the one of the iPad or computer screens in general).
A few years back, Apple marketing might have been able to praise a device with an old-fashioned backlit screen as an e-book reader, but now it is too late for that, people already know that there is a better technology for reading electronic books.
Adrian
I hope you’re right, sadly the ill-informed coverage of eBooks – look at the near absence of warnings over the Kindle’s closed format – suggests the advantages of e-ink won’t be explained to potential punters.
The real issue is how to move beyond the eBook reader and still keep its benefits. E-ink is proprietary and does not allow a device to provide the high resolution options we crave for things like movies, pictures, e-mail, web browsing. Yet the backlit led displays necessary for these things is at odds with the benefits of e-ink. Not sure how to bridge this gap, if this were exclusively an e-reader I think we would have a real problem but as a multi-media device that also allows for documents to be read and adjusted I think we are looking at some real benefits.
Leave your response!
Subscribe For Email Updates
Categories
Pages
Archives
Tags
Recent Posts
most read
Recent Comments