The future of eBooks: A perfect storm product

Various eBooks on the market

Forty years ago, Michael Hart laid the groundwork for eBooks with Project Guttenberg¹. What began as a small non-profit endeavor to provide books to the masses has since blossomed into a multibillion dollar industry. While eBook technology has made great strides in its brief history, it should be noted that eBooks are still in their infancy compared to other technologies.

Where do eBooks stand today?

Current eBooks are still trying to find that perfect combination of looks, inner-workings and functionality. This search has lead to two very different sets of technology: eBooks based on electronic ink, seen in devices like Amazon’s Kindle; or LCD-based readers in the vein of Apple’s iPad.

There are more eBooks on the market using electronic ink than LCD technology. As previously mentioned, this technology differs from your laptop or desktop in a number of ways.

Flexible display in action

Flexible Displays

The first difference is noticed in its casing. eBooks use what is called a flexible display, which is similar to paper in a variety of ways. Flexible displays are thin, light-weight and extremely durable. The display also presents content differently in that it relies electronic ink to form words and images instead of pixels².

Electronic Ink

Electronic ink can be applied to the same materials that regular ink can be printed on. In the form of a digital book, the ink is within the millions of microcapsules of the flexible display³. Each microcapsule is wired to microelectronics that apply either a positive or negative charge to the microcapsule to create the desired text or image³.

Alternate technical illustration of electronic ink. First one can be found in "What makes eBooks so darn special?" blog.

Compared to LCD screens, electronic ink allows for roughly twice the resolution, better visibility in sunlight, and requires much less energy². However, there are some downsides to this technology.

LCD-based displays are known for their vivid use of color and ability to display motion graphics. Despite explorations in the world of color⁴, electronic ink is currently only able to show content in blue and white³. And due to the slow refresh rate of electronic ink, it’s unable to present quality motion graphics⁴.

The video above is an example of how motion graphics currently display using electronic ink.

Implications of eBooks in the book industry

As eBooks become more affordable and accessible, many publishers share a growing concern that the book industry may be in jeopardy. But there are some publishers that welcome the change.

While newspaper and magazine publishers may wait around for the technology to standardize, publishers like Penguin Books can shape the industry to their liking by participating in the development of eBooks⁵.

Penguin Books sees this new technology as an opportunity rather than a constraint. John Makinson, CEO of Penguin Books, has recently been quoted as saying, “The definition of the book itself is up for grabs⁵.” Aside from willingly publishing digital content, Penguin Books is also launching their own applications as supporting content for their products⁵.

eBooks of the future

An idea of what eBooks might look like 10-15 years from today.

While sales for eBooks have been steadily increasing, it was the iPad that has dominated the market – selling over two million devices in 60 days⁷. And while the iPad uses LCD-based technology rather than electronic ink, its popularity indicated that media convergence is a desired, if not necessary, trait in today’s world.

If you look at the marketplace, people are already reading eBooks on their iPhones and listening to music on their eBooks⁶. But current eBook technology limits the media it can distribute. In the future I envision an electronic ink/LCD hybrid that utilizes the best traits of both worlds. This single future device may even replace all other technologies, resulting in a perfect storm product.

The future is on the horizon, and we’re just seeing a glimpse of it.

Sources:

1. ^”eBooks.” Wikipedia, 19 Apr. 2010. Web.
2. ^Woodford, Chris. “Electronic Books.” Explain That Stuff!.” Apr. 09 2010. Web.
3. ^Bonsor, Kevin. “How Electronic Ink Works.” How Stuff Works. Discovery, 2010. Web.
4. ^Springmann, Alessondra. “Color E-ink: Electrowetting Brings Color and Video to E-book Reader Screens.” PC World. PC World Communications, Inc., Apr. 23 2010. Web.
5. ^Weir, David. “How the Future of eBooks is Up for Grabs.” BNET (15 Mar 2010). Web. 24 May 2010.
6. ^Enderle, Rob. “The Future of eBooks: Flexible Screens and Beyond.” Digital Trends (15 Dec 2009): 1-2. Web. 24 May 2010.
7. ^Kumar, Mathew. “iPad Sells Two Million in Sixty Days, Outpacing iPhone’s Launch.” 1UP. UGO Entertainment, 01 Jun 2010. Web. 2 Jun 2010.

iPhones must be slippery

Rumored 4G iPhone found in Vietnam

The Internet is abuzz with reports claiming Apple has, once again, lost a prototype of their next generation of iPhone. Because Apple is a scary company and I value my life, I’ll just direct you to those who already broke the news:

Taoviet is the Vietnamese site to first showcase photos and images of the new iPhone.

And for those unaware of last month’s iPhone drama known as Gizmogate, you can hop over to Gizmodo for details on the previous phone as well as news about this one.

The website for Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald has an article detailing the find as well as a brief summary of the previous Gizmogate situation.

Of course, MacRumors has a few words to say about this. They also display all the photos and video from Taoviet and note differences between this new find and the last phone found.

TechNewsDaily has even more detailed specifics of the technology featured in this new phone, labeled both iPhone 4G and iPhone HD.

Oh, and if you’re just interested in seeing the iPhone video: