Watchers Vs Readers

Over 500 years after its invention, movable type printing is about to be reinvented. The big problem is that the clarity of vision that surrounded Gutenberg's work appears at times to be diluted to the point of endangering the endeavor.

When the printing press was invented back 1539, the objective was clear and simple : make it possible to print multiple copies of printed material inexpensively and relatively fast. Done and done!

Since then al we have had to do is redefine inexpensive and fast : paper has gotten cheaper and printing technologies have gotten more and more sophisticated.

The technology that has come to be know as ePaper should, at least initially, have the simple objective of replacing its predecessor. An electronic book that is indistinguishable from a conventional book in ease of reading, portability and energy requirements should be objective number one. Unfortunately, many of the companies involved in developing the technology appear to be getting sidetracked. I think I know why.

As comedian Bill Cosby used to say, you are going to appreciate this work I am doing for you. I think objective number one in every effort is to know one's primary audience. I know, I know, sometimes a secondary audience overtakes the primary one; however, the overtaking always occurs in the context of targeting the primary audience anyway.

Some time ago I had an argument with a friend who could not fathom my enthusiasm about recent developments in electronic paper technology (slowly getting better and cheaper). He felt that it was a useless effort and could not see himself buying any device that used such a technology. Now, this friend of mine is no Luddite; he is an avid technology buyer and is usually excited about the latest offerings to come out of CES or Silicon Valley.

So why was he indifferent -- to the point of derision-- to the prospect of eight-ounce books that could store a whole bookshelf's worth of literature? Because, he belongs to the group that I have come to call "The Watchers". The other group I call "The Readers". Ebook or ePaper technologies are not for "The Watchers", they are for "The Readers." Why?

Watchers are people who, for one reason or another, never learned the joy of reading. They read very well, but they do not relish the practice; they see it as work or a poor substitute for whatever the reading material describes. These are people who rarely if ever read during a vacation. They are the ones usually watching movies on their iPods on the train or while waiting for it, and will prefer a bad movie adaptation over the drudgery of actually reading the book. Watchers complain about the number of pages in a book and see graduation from college as the end of the need to read anything cover-to-cover.

Readers, on the other hand. Use their iPods mostly for listening to music while reading a book, magazine or newspaper on the train. Readers buy and collect books. Reader's judge movie adaptations by how faithfully they adhere to the spirit of the book. Readers use vacation time as an opportunity to catch up on their reading. Readers are the people you want to target with any electronic paper or book technology because they will value it if it is as user-friendly as what it is trying to replace.

I don't think I need to mention at this point that I consider myself a reader. I look for an eBook to be as easy on my eyes and my hands as a book. Many so-called eBook readers are just stripped-down tablet PCs. Book-lovers do not really want that. Readers want something you can cuddly up with (as you would with your favorite book) but capable of holding hundreds or thousand of books.

The ideal eBook will either be powered by light (i.e. solar) or will have a an unobtrusive battery that lasts for many years. As a member of the reader class, I want my ePaper to get right everything that actual paper has gotten right. I also want ePaper to be comparably priced. We would not expect an eReader to be priced like a hardcover book, but neither do we want it to be so major a purchase that it would be unattractive to the average buyer. For example, it is ridiculous to compare the price of an eBook reader with that of a hard-bound encyclopedia because no family ever bough a separate set for each child and most single people traditionally rely on libraries or the Internet.

I think a good price point for eBook readers should be that of cell phones -- currently starting at $50 in the absence of a promotion. This initial price should include at least 4 titles chosen by the buyer with subsequent titles sold for less that their paperback editions ($5-up sounds fair to me). We are still several months (or years) away from this, but I think it is important to state the kind of objective to shoot for.

Once that first goal is achieved, then other so-called enhancements can be added. This is what makes the development of the iPod so admirable. The iPod's first goal was to replace the portable CD Player. Once this was achieved, then came video and games, wi-fi and even an attached cell phone.

In the same way, a good development path for ePaper or eBook readers should be:
First, the triumvirate of look and feel, cost, and long battery life -- with search (in lieu of an index) and bookmarking (in lieu of dog-earing) thrown in for good measure.
Second, wi-fi and/or blue tooth would be a great first addition, especially for the sake of periodicals.
Third, color and high resolution photography would really sell the new technology to art lovers and the books-with-pictures crowd.
Fourth, animation and maybe sound should be the last thing on the list and should not be implemented sparsely. In other words, it should not be another movie player; people who want portable movie players (a.k.a. Watchers) already have plenty of choices out there. Ebook/ePaper makers need to take care of their base first.


I know, I know, I have not mentioned existing products that already feature some of the characteristics I've listed. This has been on purpose.

The two most popular products out there, the Sony eBook reader (and its clones) and Amazon's Kindle are, in my opinion, modified tablet PCs or PDAs -- choose your epithet. I think it's good that they exist, but I see them as transitory devices that appeal to gadget lovers. For ePaper or eBook readers to be successful they must appeal to actual book lovers. These devices are to the new technology what the Pony Express was to the telephone -- appetite whetters.

The reality is that, even an IT person like myself (and even more so a regular civilian) would want an eBook reader that behaves more like a traditional book or magazine than like another laptop.

Plastic Logic is working on a product that is starting to look like the future of books. For one it looks more like a legal pad than a tablet PC and promises a more paper-like experience. It is still not flexible or foldable (two nice-to-have features) but I would have not trouble tucking it into the side pocket of my bag or briefcase next to the latest issue of The Economist (or, rather, in it's place).

So, my call to all current and future eBook/ePaper industry players is that they cater to their base. Make your products appeal to people who read, not gamers or movie fans. There are enough of us to give you the push you need. There will always be a place for printed matter; make sure you put down your stakes in just such a place.

A Different Tune

A couple months ago, I slammed Comcast for their dishonest ads. I don't know whether one of their attorneys read my post, but the last Comcast I listened to on the radio used the word "web" in connection with their suggestion of "unlimited access."

While I still don't recommend Comcast for anything (their digital channels are as bad as the technology will allow; and their Internet access is the worst around) I must commend them for at least adding that CYA to their ads. Now, if after hearing one of their recent radio commercials, still insist on using Comcast for your Internet access, you have only yourself to blame if your VPN or FTP or BitTorrent connections don't work as expected.