Skip to main content

Functional Fiction...Book Readers

Many people are expecting book readers, ebooks, digital books to take off this year.

It's been happening in Japan for more than one year and some of the gadgets being seen in Las Vegas, like the Sony reader, demonstrate a growing awareness of the trend.

This isn't new; some PDA's have been supporting downloadable books for some time. The earliest evolution was the audio book be it a CD or tape for the car or the train commute and then later on MP3 files for your iPod or similar device.

In a recent Wall Street Journal Asian edition there was an article that highlighted a new comer to this arena in Playaway. The main difference is that the playaway device is pre-loaded and is a one book read. You cannot update the media, it literally is an electronic book in the same way that you can't change the print in your Tom Clancy paperback.

Playaway is aimed at people who want the convenience of electronic media but are too scared or simply don't want to know about downloads.

The biggest benefit in this technology to me is that you still get an element of the book experience. You have a spine and cover art that conveys the content, not simply some hardened plastic cover.

Some time ago I posted here about my vision of the evolution of the newspaper. I see that in his 2006 predictions in Bangkok Post's Database James Hein is also thinking about book readers.

Today the Playaway is little more than a familiarly book sized play back device (although I do like the variable playback speed feature) and I think that James' digital book idea will still be a black plastic box with the content on the reading surfaces.

In my mind I see a nice combination of some of the features of both concepts. Book type feel when you would like to read, playback when it's not convenient (driving, walking etc). In addition I would wrap my design in smart paper for additional user experience:
  • Spine for quick reference
  • Cover art to let everyone else know what you're reading
This is an important part of why people still buy books today. Imagine a device that could hold more than one book at a time. Your current fiction of choice, maybe a dictionary or some other frequently accessed reference manual. It would be useful to know how you left your device configured, spine and cover art is just about as quick a way as you're going to get and what's more it's more intuitive.

Enable the device to be WiFi connected (or GPRS) and you have upsell opportunities. Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide could provide you with City Centric downloads. You fly in on holiday or business turn on your device and receive the guide into your reader.

Where did I put that patent application ??

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crisis Connections

What the flood situation in Thailand has shown once again is the power of social networks to fill the void of communication. In recent times the role of Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry messenger has been shown in good and bad light.  The same methods that released the Arab Spring have also been used to coordinate the London Riots . Love them or loathe social networks are here to stay and what the floods show is how they keep people connected.  Some will say there should be no communication void if central government is on top of its game, but with a situation that can change so rapidly, and over such a large area the traditional press certainly struggle to keep the public up to date. Twitter and Facebook have been saviours for those of us outside Thailand at this time.  With roving reporters and connected people like Patee Sarasin and Jetrin out doing and tweeting many more people are kept up to date. Equally useful is the ability to time shift news updates...
Post a Comment
Read more

AaI and Net Neutrality

On a previous post on Access as Infrastructure there was a discussion on the government led initiatives for ultra fast broadband. The proposition is that the build out of new access networks is such an expensive activity that the governments of Australia and New Zealand will make the investment, using a combination of public and private money. So with ubiquitous access a near reality and with that access provided in the same way as electricity, water, gas, and roads getting to your house what does this mean for the net neutrality debate? If the telco no longer owns the asset and are merely a party in the trade then surely this solves the net neutrality problem? The incumbent may get preferential treatment because of scale and buying power but this wouldn't be extended to priority routing. Moving the competition from the physical platform to the offering, as long as the telcos, CSPs, and RSPs are not government owned, then we can have comfort that the pipe is there and ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

Muni, Muni, Muni

2006 is going to see an explosion in the activity of Municipal, Muni, Networks. This article from the BBC states that IP access is becoming a basic amenity, in the same way as water and electricity. Philly is the next to be online; with a 135 square mile network being built out by Earthlink and turned on next year. Not far behind is San Francisco with, you've guessed it, Google as one of the prime bidders. They believe they can take their successful advertising revenue stream to provide free IP access to the proletariat. On a brief aside the partnership of Google and NASA, can we expect to see Google in Space? With the benefits of WiFi access to schools, hospitals and police forces around the US it won't take long for a few well publicized examples of how access helped them for the ball to start rolling. I would agree with Paul that the secret to success is a partnership with the existing carriers. Otherwise the likes of SprintNextel could easily freeze the new comers out. Th...
1 comment
Read more