Now that we’ve left the hall of mirrors that was the Apple-tablet rumor mill, we can finally take a deep breath and ask: What’s up with the iPad? (Seriously, we’re really all gonna call it that?) Seeing as we’re avid readers, let’s shake our magic eight ball and ask what it might mean for e-books. Our take after the jump.
iBookstore pricing
From screenshots at least, it looks like the iBook store might have variable prices for e- (sorry, i-) books. This is a shot across the bow for Amazon, which has been fighting book publishers over e-book price points. Amazon likes $9.99, but publishers are used to charging upwards of 20 bucks for a hardback. The screenshots seem to indicate the iBookstore could meet somewhere in the middle for new releases. The tiff with Amazon has gotten so bad that certain publishers have started delaying the releases of their ebooks to avoid cannibalizing their hardback sales. (There’s been some speculation that Amazon is fighting back by hitting those same books with dozens of one-star ratings.) Not coincidentally, the publishers who were dragging their heels with cheaper ebooks are some of the same ones lining up early for the iBook store, including Hachette and Simon and Schuster. The way we’ve heard it, this is not just about price. Ebooks are a relatively small section of the book market right now, but they’re growing very fast. And if Amazon ends up as the primary distributor and sets the prices for ebooks — well, that leaves publishers pretty scared they’ll be cut out. On the other hand, everyone who saw what the iPod did to CD sales would caution that the iPad might not be the messiah many in book publishing clearly want it to be. But — for now — it looks like the iBook store may allow publishers more say in setting the prices of ebooks. Which puts Amazon’s marketshare squarely in Apple’s sights.
The iPad uses an open-source format for books
The iBookstore will sell content in the most commonly accepted open ebook format, EPUB. The Kindle store uses a proprietary format called AZW. Sounds like Apple’s coming down on the side of open source, right? Well, not so fast. It’s not yet clear whether you could load up a PDF you “found” into the iBook reader (as you can with the Kindle), or whether you’ll be stuck getting all your content from the iBookstore. It’s also still sketchy whether buying books in an EPUB format from the iBookstore means they’ll be readable on other ereading devices by the likes of Sony, Barnes and Noble, etc, or whether Apple has some sort of DRM of its own. But if Apple is really committing to selling DRM-free ebooks, that could put a lot of pressure on Amazon and everyone else to adopt the standard. That might bring the publishing world a whole lot closer to its own mp3 era.
It’s got a real screen
The iPad features a 9.7” high-res screen, not an e-ink display like many other e-readers. It remains to be seen whether that large display and the accompanying 1GHz processor will make reading books on a screen more palatable to consumers. But it does open the possibility of full-color ebooks.
There’s buy-in from publishers — the big ones, at least
HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book Group are among the publishers who are on board at this time, and the NY Times speculates that Random House can’t be far behind. This is a good sign that the iBook store will have robust initial content. What else would we like to see? More involvement from indie publishers, too. Sure, the iTunes store is great and all, but for the first few years especially, it leaned heavily on the major labels, spurring the growth of independent distribution sites like emusic. Can we expect the same for ebooks?
It’s 500 bucks
It looks like one of the goals of all those controlled leaks was to set expectations for a thousand-dollar device, only to reveal a base model at about $499 (with 3G). To put that in perspective, a Kindle or a Nook will cost you about $259. Could a more expensive but more full-featured device kickstart ebooks?
Got something to say about the iPad and what it could do for (or is that to?) e-books? Share it in the comments.
Comments (28)
Interactive reading. Textbooks with videos that visualize theorems, chemical reactions, formulas, historical events, Pop up annotations. Interactive time lines. All within the actual book itself rather than separate programs or channels or websites.
Maybe even touch highlighting and underlining?
games, Bluetooth, virtual keyboard… even iTunes. Who wouldn’t be reading and listening some beats through some stereo bt headphones. And since it is some kind of device in the middle of an ipod and a Macbook, a middle featured OS would be fine! Let’s see who comes with the idea of a similar product with Android at that price. And if they pretend to sell you an iPhone to listen your calls and music while this device would be just for reading… then it’s overpriced.
I think we’re forgetting here that the main difference with e-book readers is the screen. An e-book reader without the special non-eye-soaring screen is little else than a ’90s electronic agenda.
Regarding users documents, I’ve seen you can use Apple Works, with Pages, so you can read any word document you want and I wouldn’t be surprised if they included Apples own pdf viewer, Preview. I still would like to know what kind of OS will it run. I guess it’s a downsized version of Snow Leopard.
No camera. No USB port. No multitasking. No folder for non-apple media. Ill have my Archos 9 this week instead of waiting 90 days. Look at the price for the 64 GB 3G model. Close enough to $1000 to say ouch. A blind iPhone on steroids. I’ll get one, but I’m not feeling the love.
I’ll keep my Kindle, thanks. My top issues? Eye strain (none with the e-ink in the Kindle) and battery life. Bragging about 10 hours of charge time on the IThingie means that it probably gets more like 6 with a bright screen setting and an always-on modem connection. I only need to charge my Kindle about once every 8 days, and I leave the wifi on all the time and use it a LOT.
For me to get one of these, I need a) a price drop b) the ability to use my Kindle books on it (hey–I can play my Amazon MP3′s on my iPod, right?) c) MUCH longer battery life d) included WiFi flatfee ONE TIME with purchase (like the Kindle) or a MUCH lower monthly charge (like $5 a month) and e) a thinner, smaller form factor. Then we’ll talk.
One area that the iPad could completely reinvigorate is comic books. I currently read comics on the iPhone. I saw this thing and began to salivate at the chance to read them at nearly full size. If Marvel and DC could figure out a way to do it, the iPad is practically built for it.
Man, I would love to be able to subscribe to a comic digitally and download it when it becomes available like a podcast. I’d seriously consider getting an iPad just for that.
Enough with this back-lit screen crap, get on the bandwagon apple.
I have this incredible device. It’s called a MacBook and it’s super light and super thin and super powerful and it runs all my heavy duty applications on it. This thing is a monster and beautiful to boot! I carry it everywhere, surf the web, email, even write music for television on it. Woah!! And I have this other cool little thingy called an i-phone that fits in my shirt pocket. Hey, I’m on the road all the time and I read BOOKS on this nifty creature, listen to my music and even talk to my family, take pictures — you should see this thing — it’s amazing!!
What should make this very interesting are the apps that book lovers and publishers will develop. As a book reviewer and as a historian, I am always underlining and making notes in the margins of books. I’ll need those apps to justify purchasing this machine.
However, even though I am a Mac lover dating back to the 512e of 1984, I still prefer a hardcover book when it comes to reading.
I love the feel of paper, the weight of paper, the smell of print …. can I read in the bathtub with this? hum…. not interested yet. However, the interactive possibilities could be dreamy…
I don’t know … the fact that it has no e-Ink screen makes me wary of it. I mean, it’ll be exhausting to read a 400-page novel on a backlit screen and the battery life for the iPad ain’t that great either.
“I am always underlining and making notes in the margins of books. I’ll need those apps to justify purchasing this machine.”
I’m thinking the exact same thing.
The only thing that would make the iPad revolutionary is for creators of written work to be able to self publish like musicians can when they upload their music to iTunes.
With all the erosion of journalists (many news agencies are closing their foreign offices)new journalists can upload news to podcast on the iPad a sort of Padcast.
Also the thing needs a stylist to write on it. Kindle doesn’t have that.
As much as I like hardcopy books this device will change how students use textbooks. It’s more cost effective to have textbooks as download anyway and updating erratas will be quicker.
Also in STM (Science, Trade, Medicine) publishing this device could revolutionize peer reviewed research articles for journals – increasing production work flow. I recall doing research having a stack of journal articles to search through – now a researcher could just read the articles as uploaded to one’s device.
The losers are the print houses and that’s unfortunate perhaps printing can be preserved as a fine art form.
I remember hearing Bill gates give a talk in 1993 about his vision of advancing computer technology – he shared the vision to get computer away from desks and wires – making the interaction seem less with every part of human activities. Pundits may druge up the so-called rivalry between Jobs and Gates but they both had a similar vision and drove each other towards it. May we all find the competitive friend to drive our collected visions.
What about newspapers and magazines? That’s what makes it interesting to me — the convenience of reading that kind of content online but being able to curl up with something more friendly/leisurely-feeling than a computer. Especially with some kind of really intuitive bookmarking/filing capability. Definitely concerned about a regular instead of e-ink screen, and battery life. But a real book I find hard to give up — I even still love the library.
Let’s see what the futures will be before we pay for it. However it looks nice, talking about the size and the design.
Wonder if you can copy text out of it and paste into other progs?
I have been very excited about every new leap in technology, especially in the field of graphic arts; the field in which I currently work. Visual Art has always been a concept that could easily be spread across all mediums. Text though, as the written word, hasn’t changed in such a leap and bound since the invention of paper. How this will effect us, good and bad, time will only tell. Yes, it gives the average person easier access to publish, however it gives others easier access to control, change and rewrite history. Hello, 1984. And what will we curl up to when the power fails and our e-book’s, or i-book’s, battery has lost it’s charge. Hopefully, this century will not see the light go out on the printed page.
The base model, at $499, doesn’t have 3G, WiFi only. The 3G version costs $629.
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From an artistic/geek perspective, here’s how I’d like to see it evolve:
http://patriotgreetingcards.com/beta/ebay/PatriotgreetingcardsDotcom.jpg
[...] February 3, 2010 · Leave a Comment Now that we’ve left the hall of mirrors that was the Apple-tablet rumor mill, we can finally take a deep breath and ask: What’s up with the iPad? (Seriously, we’re really all gonna call it that?) Seeing as we’re avid readers, let’s shake our magic eight ball and ask what it might mean for e-books. More… [...]
in terms of the iBook software, the ability to mark up a document, ie highlight, underline etc
in terms of the content, while i appreciate the effort apple has gone to to sign up the majority of the big publishers, it would have been nice if they did it as part of a GLOBAL agreement, as there are customers in places other than the US.
Screw Apple. They’ve ruined my ebook experience. I will never support them and I advise you all do the same.
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