I want to keep this place as personal as possible, despite of all those late-tech-adopters who say how a blog should be.
eBook was always around.
I was one of the PDA users since early 2000s and I've been reading pirated versions of eBooks in doc, pdf and txt formats. Since then, and until now, there have been pirated eBooks in those formats online, easily accessible for those who knew it.
But it never became popular. One, PDA was thought to be not user-friendly and you always had to connect it to the PC - even for those PDAs with WiFi accessibility. PC-PDA connection was required to make the documents more readable on PDA (e.g. reflow of PDFs).
There were issues with contents availability as well. Other than textbooks that were scanned, only huge best sellers were available in eBoos in English. Korean eBooks had more variety due to amateur writers posting online and many of these actually ended up being published in books(e.g. 퇴마록). No publishers took their threat seriously and profit margins were still great.
In my opinion, Kindle changed that.
Amazon, originally known as an Internet bookseller, had evolved to be the largest online retailer.
But it found its roots as a bookseller again in Kindle, and now they offer Kindle 2 and Kindle DX (see the picture above).
Kindle was a gadget made only for the eBooks. Given its previous connections to publishers, Amazon provided a huge collections of published contents in Kindle format. Of course, newspapers and magazines that were already easily available on the Internet attracted Kindle users. Using the eInk tech, Kindle was supposed to give a sense of reading real letters on the paper - which I am just okay with it and I still prefer reading on LCD screens of iPhone over it.
Kindle format books are cheaper, but still priced above 50% of the real books. It can be connected to 3G wireless service providers (Sprint in the US) to download and data plan fees are not charged. You can sync Kindle readings with Kindle softwares on iPhone, PC and Mac as well. However, Kindle versions of eBooks are strictly for Kindle and Kindle programs, it cannot be read from other eBook readers.
Sony also jumped into the eBook market, but they were not even close to Kindle's market share - at least here in the US. Sony now offers a touch screen version (see above in red), but still relies on eInk displays. Recently, Sony began offering the contents in ePub platform, but who knew this would be a tool to kill itself (discussed later). It's not dead yet, of course. It will soon.
More start-ups joined the eBook market, naturally. Above is a picture of Skiff reader, a thin and bendable gadget shown on the most recent CES at Vegas. Other giants also joined the market such as HP and Samsung (I think), but I don't care what they have because they are not going do-or-die on eBook market and they won't care even if they fail.
Barnes and Noble also joined the party with its Nook and also using its existing connection with publishers. Nook has been known to have issues with short battery life despite of adulation on the colored displays and touch-screen interface.
The worst scenario is of course when both of those horrendous events take place.
God, I hate to read junks. I love meaningful books and I want to get them.
eBooks are great, but how it'd change the industry is just appalling me.
It should not be like that.
Someone big should step up and prevent this from happening when it's still in the early stage.
(I am an extreme early adopter of whatever is on the Internet - I know clearly what the hell I am doing.)
But eBooks are something that matter to me a lot due to my undying love to books.
This article would be 100% based on my memory. I may be end up paraphrasing some of the articles I've read, but I am not going to indicate where the paraphrasing is originating from simply because I can't.
Also posting this might be a little too late since so many already have written regarding eBooks, especially with the recent release of iPad.
But in my defense, this has been a hidden post for like two weeks, and I was just being incredibly lazy to finish it.
Not to mention that I have exams to prepare.
eBooks for the Publishing Industry is becoming MP3s for music industry, just a worse version.
That's how I view it.
I was one of the PDA users since early 2000s and I've been reading pirated versions of eBooks in doc, pdf and txt formats. Since then, and until now, there have been pirated eBooks in those formats online, easily accessible for those who knew it.
But it never became popular. One, PDA was thought to be not user-friendly and you always had to connect it to the PC - even for those PDAs with WiFi accessibility. PC-PDA connection was required to make the documents more readable on PDA (e.g. reflow of PDFs).
There were issues with contents availability as well. Other than textbooks that were scanned, only huge best sellers were available in eBoos in English. Korean eBooks had more variety due to amateur writers posting online and many of these actually ended up being published in books(e.g. 퇴마록). No publishers took their threat seriously and profit margins were still great.
In my opinion, Kindle changed that.
Amazon, originally known as an Internet bookseller, had evolved to be the largest online retailer.
But it found its roots as a bookseller again in Kindle, and now they offer Kindle 2 and Kindle DX (see the picture above).
Kindle was a gadget made only for the eBooks. Given its previous connections to publishers, Amazon provided a huge collections of published contents in Kindle format. Of course, newspapers and magazines that were already easily available on the Internet attracted Kindle users. Using the eInk tech, Kindle was supposed to give a sense of reading real letters on the paper - which I am just okay with it and I still prefer reading on LCD screens of iPhone over it.
Kindle format books are cheaper, but still priced above 50% of the real books. It can be connected to 3G wireless service providers (Sprint in the US) to download and data plan fees are not charged. You can sync Kindle readings with Kindle softwares on iPhone, PC and Mac as well. However, Kindle versions of eBooks are strictly for Kindle and Kindle programs, it cannot be read from other eBook readers.
Sony also jumped into the eBook market, but they were not even close to Kindle's market share - at least here in the US. Sony now offers a touch screen version (see above in red), but still relies on eInk displays. Recently, Sony began offering the contents in ePub platform, but who knew this would be a tool to kill itself (discussed later). It's not dead yet, of course. It will soon.
More start-ups joined the eBook market, naturally. Above is a picture of Skiff reader, a thin and bendable gadget shown on the most recent CES at Vegas. Other giants also joined the market such as HP and Samsung (I think), but I don't care what they have because they are not going do-or-die on eBook market and they won't care even if they fail.
Barnes and Noble also joined the party with its Nook and also using its existing connection with publishers. Nook has been known to have issues with short battery life despite of adulation on the colored displays and touch-screen interface.
On January 27, 2010, Apple released iPad. As I said to my friends, it's just a huge iPod Touch with less camera, less GPS, and plus longer battery life. I know it's got the faster CPU and better screen and all (I am very much informed on this product as much as an outsider could be). But given the hype and possible features that did not have to be invented, it was such a disappointment.
iPad is not an eBook reader, but it offers eBook reader functions and offers eBook contents through its eBook contents store called iBooks. It's contents would be offered in ePub format.
So, Sony reader users can easily convert to iPad and keep their eBook library (told ya, Sony is as good as dead).
Yeah yeah, this is colored, could be more fun for magazines and comic books.
This device however can be the premium mobile device for movies and eBooks - as consumers continue the Apple-ism and it can surely evolve easily.
But eBook readers are not the point of this post.
I want to view this eBook evolution in relation to the Publishing Market.
It's so simple to find its metaphor: Music Industry.
Music industry had been plummeted in its profits since MP3 has been emerged.
Large labels rely on low-margin MP3 sales to make their living and their CD sales is barely 15% of where it was in 2000.
However, independent labels could survive through its local markets using its local musicians - at least in the US, it is.
But never the less, music industry has shrunk so much in its size.
Yet, they did not die and quality might not have reduced.
It's because musicians can offer concerts.
Concerts and their performance arrangements were able to fill musicians pockets.
Concert ticket prices are still high and easily sold out and traded at much higher value.
Unfortunately, I don't see such remedy for the Publishing markets.
eBook market is still at its infant stage, and has several issues.
1) Compatibility: Kindle eBooks are good only for Kindles and its the largest market shareholder. ePub will soon take-off and may skyrocket despite of the disappointing iPad. Sony+Apple should make ePub significant already. This would mean that some Publishers might not offer eBooks through one of the other formats, which would be detrimental to the consumers.
2) Writers cannot have concerts: Amazon recently released a statement saying 70% of their Kindle eBook sales would go to their respective authors. Apple made it clear (although I don't really buy it) that it does not intend to generate a significant profits from eBook sales. Nevertheless, the Publisher and writer relationships would be harmed just as musician and label relationships did.
Soon, only the large publishers would be left in the market who could strike profitable deals with eBook gadget manufacturers, that means they will generate a significant control over the contents and writers. It's going to be incredibly difficult for new writers to emerge and write contents that would be informative although they might not best sellers. Unless there would be charity organizations and eBook gadget manufacturers stand up to protect and give chances to emerging writers, readers would be getting only what were perceived as best sellers.
Think like this: the readers only will have Hollywood action movies and have only a few, if any, touching/sensible independent drama movies.
One thing that makes that comparison bad is that in the publishing world, you only need paper and pen (or one PC) to write either "Avatar" or "Waitress".
If that's not going to happen,
the readers would be flooded with horrible quality contents.
Everyone who thinks himself/herself as a writer would try to have their junk available in eBooks and it's going to be just as hard to select a quality material among the sea of junks.
iPad is not an eBook reader, but it offers eBook reader functions and offers eBook contents through its eBook contents store called iBooks. It's contents would be offered in ePub format.
So, Sony reader users can easily convert to iPad and keep their eBook library (told ya, Sony is as good as dead).
Yeah yeah, this is colored, could be more fun for magazines and comic books.
This device however can be the premium mobile device for movies and eBooks - as consumers continue the Apple-ism and it can surely evolve easily.
But eBook readers are not the point of this post.
I want to view this eBook evolution in relation to the Publishing Market.
It's so simple to find its metaphor: Music Industry.
Music industry had been plummeted in its profits since MP3 has been emerged.
Large labels rely on low-margin MP3 sales to make their living and their CD sales is barely 15% of where it was in 2000.
However, independent labels could survive through its local markets using its local musicians - at least in the US, it is.
But never the less, music industry has shrunk so much in its size.
Yet, they did not die and quality might not have reduced.
It's because musicians can offer concerts.
Concerts and their performance arrangements were able to fill musicians pockets.
Concert ticket prices are still high and easily sold out and traded at much higher value.
Unfortunately, I don't see such remedy for the Publishing markets.
eBook market is still at its infant stage, and has several issues.
1) Compatibility: Kindle eBooks are good only for Kindles and its the largest market shareholder. ePub will soon take-off and may skyrocket despite of the disappointing iPad. Sony+Apple should make ePub significant already. This would mean that some Publishers might not offer eBooks through one of the other formats, which would be detrimental to the consumers.
2) Writers cannot have concerts: Amazon recently released a statement saying 70% of their Kindle eBook sales would go to their respective authors. Apple made it clear (although I don't really buy it) that it does not intend to generate a significant profits from eBook sales. Nevertheless, the Publisher and writer relationships would be harmed just as musician and label relationships did.
Soon, only the large publishers would be left in the market who could strike profitable deals with eBook gadget manufacturers, that means they will generate a significant control over the contents and writers. It's going to be incredibly difficult for new writers to emerge and write contents that would be informative although they might not best sellers. Unless there would be charity organizations and eBook gadget manufacturers stand up to protect and give chances to emerging writers, readers would be getting only what were perceived as best sellers.
Think like this: the readers only will have Hollywood action movies and have only a few, if any, touching/sensible independent drama movies.
One thing that makes that comparison bad is that in the publishing world, you only need paper and pen (or one PC) to write either "Avatar" or "Waitress".
If that's not going to happen,
the readers would be flooded with horrible quality contents.
Everyone who thinks himself/herself as a writer would try to have their junk available in eBooks and it's going to be just as hard to select a quality material among the sea of junks.
The worst scenario is of course when both of those horrendous events take place.
God, I hate to read junks. I love meaningful books and I want to get them.
eBooks are great, but how it'd change the industry is just appalling me.
It should not be like that.
Someone big should step up and prevent this from happening when it's still in the early stage.
