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What Does the iPad Bring to the eReading Experience?
By Dave Peterson | January 28, 2010
During his introduction of the Apple iPad, Steve Jobs spent a bit of time addressing one of the most obvious uses for a tablet device, eReading. Until now, that market has been pretty well controlled by the Amazon Kindle, but as a user of all the Kindles since their initial launch, I can tell you the monochrome world of conventional eInk is a mixed blessing.
Battery life on eInk devices tends toward the amazing. The standard Kindle delivers about a week of normal use on a single charge and turning the wireless connectivity off can double that. The iPad has a stated 10 hour battery life with WiFi use, and that can likely be extended by turning wireless off during use as an eReader.
Selecting a book to read on a Kindle can be a dicey proposition, largely due to publishers’ frequent inclination to leave out graphics and photos, even monochrome or grayscale ones the Kindle could reproduce quite well. My rule of thumb is usually that novels (not known for much image content) are pretty safe Kindle picks, but non-fiction books that might have photos, illustrations, maps. etc., might be better to buy in a bound paper format. If I’m uncertain about the suitability of a book to be eRead, I usually try to check it out in the real world before making a buying decision. It’s reasonable to think the iPad will make buying graphically-rich books in electronic form safer, but that will ultimately depend upon how much effort (and expense) individual publishers (and maybe Apple) want to put into specific titles.
Another simultaneous positive and negative is the eye strain issue. An eInk display produces no light, making it easier to read for long periods of time. I’ve talked with people who can’t read books on a back-lit display for very long without starting to develop a headache, but they have no such problems with eInk. The lack of backlighting, though, means you need to bring your own page illuminating light, one way or another. The iPad is already being touted as “easy to read, even in low light.”
Users of existing eReaders (Kindle, nook, Sony Reader, etc.,) should have a reasonably smooth transition should they choose to go with an iPad. There are currently ways to read all the popular formats on the iPhone or Touch, and that means those reader apps will be available on the iPad as well. It does mean your library may become a bit fractured, with different books requiring different apps on the device. It may not be elegant, but you shouldn’t lose any part of your existing eLibrary.
One strong element I’ve seen in the iBooks app is the speed of virtual page turns. It’s an LED display and that means it can refresh at a much faster rate than eInk. For me the biggest requirement of an eReader is that the device must become unnoticeable, giving way to whatever is being read. Slow page turns pull you out of the book. The iPad will be not have this problem (and if it matters, it looks to have some absolutely gorgeous page turn animation that can vary depending on the speed at which you flip your finger across the screen).
One final comparison to make is the presence of wireless connectivity. In the Kindle, it’s provided free with the purchase of the device, but it’s of limited use for anything other than browsing and buying from the bookstore, and Whispersyncing between Kindle format devices. The iPad will provide WiFi, but if you anticipate a need for connectivity away from a hotspot, you’ll need to Pay $130 extra for the 3G version and a monthly (non-contract) service charge of $15 or $30. But with that, you’ll get web options that go far beyond those offered on the Kindle.
Before we get too excited about the promise of a full-color eReader, we have to note the saddest part of this story, that the iBooks app (and associated iBookstore) are currently listed as available in the United States only. Obviously there are international copyright and electronic publishing deals still to be hammered out, and that could happen before the iPad lands in users’ hands two months from now, but I don’t think anyone is making large bets that it will happen that quickly.
Ultimately, for eReading to really gain acceptance, it must deliver an experience equal or superior to that pulled from a printed page. A lot of bibliophiles say that’s impossible, but I think “book” is a word on the verge of redefinition, in a good way. The iPad is the second of many needed steps before that can happen.
Update: Check out my hands-on thoughts about the iPad as an eReader here.
Topics: ereaders | 2 Comments »
January 29th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Having purchased several Kindle books, one major issue for me is the lock in due to DRM. Kindle books are tied to the Kindle ecosystem. The great thing about the iPad, though is that the Kindle App will let me read my Kindle books on the iPad. It’s a device that will allow other publishing systems to compete with it’s own.
July 12th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
You nailed it! Why is anyone fighting this? And the beauty is, amazon will still make a boatload off selling books on the iPad and iPhone, and Kindle prices will continue to drop.
I leave near the beach and I can tell you the iPad shortfall is 1) who wants to take a $600 water-and-sand averse toy to a beach 2) major glare factor. But if you got a $99 kindle on the side….that syncs your last read page…