Fate of the e-Reader


When one of my friends bought the Kindle, I was very impressed with the screen without a backlight and also by the much vaunted E Ink technology. The Kindle felt just like a book, you know, without any of the brightness (or irritation) associated with a PC/laptop screen. In fact, Amazon made it a point to highlight the device’s “paper-like” screen. And Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos wasn’t exaggerating when he declared, “Amazon Kindle is for reading”.

So why didn’t the e-reader sweep the reading world off its feet? Why didn’t people switch from the world of atoms (books) to the world of bits (e-books)?

Because of Steve Jobs. When he announced the iPad, people had to make a choice: did they want a single purpose device or a multi-purpose device? Something specialized for one use or something generalized for most things? Did they want to go back to uni-tasking or continue with multitasking?

The world voted overwhelming for the tablet.

But here’s an unintended consequence of the triumph of the tablet: in winning over the e-reader, the tablet saved the printed book! Because fewer e-readers mean a smaller market for e-books; which in turn means the continuation of printed books.

So is the e-reader dead? Not necessarily. Because Amazon still has one option up its sleeve. Today, e-books cost pretty much the same as printed books. Which makes no economic sense given that (electronic) bits are practically free. So if Amazon were to bring down the price of e-books compared to printed books, people might yet be tempted to go for the e-book. And since most people can’t read long books on their PC or tablet, they may start queuing up for that e-reader after all.

So why then doesn’t Amazon bring down the price of the e-book? Well, authors and publishers stand in their way. Both groups like the printed book model because the (prices and hence) margins are so much higher than e-books. So they continue to oppose any such move by Amazon.

Which way will the battle of the e-reader swing? I wouldn’t bet in favour of the e-reader, but then again, “It ain’t over until it’s over”.

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