Whenever an industry expands at an astonishing rate, everyone wants to join the club. And in the e-book industry, it’s become a very crowded clubhouse.
The current rallying cry? More, more, more!
Interactive apps from a fresh crop of players and casual, affordable new hardware are pushing the e-book world down intriguing, if unproven, new paths.
“There’s a lot of activity in what I call ocean-rowers,” said Ned May, vice president of publishing industry analyst Outsell. “I live in Boston, and once a summer, someone sets out to row across the ocean. It’s possible, and it gets a lot of attention, but it’s just not practical.
“There are a lot of fascinating things like that going on right now with e-books, but are they going to become an entirely new approach? I’m not sure.”
The recent demise of brick- and-mortar retailer Borders, which announced plans to shutter its remaining 400 stores last month, has likely only driven more folks toward the instant gratification of e-books.
And the proliferation of video-enhanced e-book apps and sporty new e-readers, such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, the Libre series and the Kobo, is a reflection of the increasing role e-books play in daily life.
Millions of downloadable books for free? E-readers that act more like tablets? Twitter and Facebook links at the flick of a fingertip?
Why not?
Beyond the e-reader
E-readers, of course, are the “electronic ink” devices dedicated to reading downloadable books. They differ from a tablet’s LCD display in that the image doesn’t constantly refresh itself on screen, resulting in text that’s easier on the eyes and therefore potentially more immersive.
Amazon’s Kindle is the market dominator, but Barnes & Nobles’ touch-screen Nook (now with a $250 color version that acts more like a tablet) and Sony’s Reader have attempted to close the gap over the past couple of years, with dozens more devices jockeying for attention.
It’s no surprise that sales of e-readers have nearly doubled in the past 12 months.
A recent Consumer Reports test, which looked at more than a dozen black and white e-readers, gave high marks to the Kindle Wi-Fi, Nook Simple Touch and Kobo eReader Touch — the last of which was formerly aligned with Borders, and which now offers a million books for free online.
All of these cost around $140.
Then there are tablets, like Apple’s iPad 2 and its host of imitators. Their portability — and readability — is often less than stellar, especially in direct sunlight. But they can do a lot more than just display a book, with Internet connectivity and full-color multimedia bells and whistles.
“They look to be a much larger market opportunity as far as device sales, so we’re seeing a lot of interest in developing titles for those devices because of their breadth,” May said. “It’s not going to push out the e-readers, but for certain types of content, like children’s books or scientific manuals and other graphically rich content, an iPad is superior.”
As a result, interactive and animated e-book apps for tablets and smartphones have begun flooding the market.
Interactivity rules
Byook, for example, aims to offer “enhanced” reading experiences. The French company, made up of former digital entertainment veterans, is offering a Sherlock Holmes title that’s tricked out with the kind of music and graphics more commonly found in video games.
The Byook e-book app for iPhones and iPads, which costs $2, is meant to “mix the magic of books with the emotional power of movies,” according to Byook sales manager Jean-Louis Delmotte.
“Of course, it’s not like a movie because the text is still the heart of the experience,” he said via e-mail. “But music, animations and sounds will reinforce the emotions you have while you are reading.”
There’s also Vook, a New York-based company that combines video, instant social media links and other functionality into its various titles, which cost $2 to $8.
“The interactivity could be as simple as pop-up windows, or when people see a word they’re interested in, a picture or definition may appear, or an entry on Wikipedia,” said founder Bradley Inman. “We try to create an experience that augments, but doesn’t get in the way of, the words.”
Among Vook’s 500 titles, only 1 percent are fiction, although the company is adding 50 per week. More than half of its 1 million downloads have been for iPhones and iPads.
“I think we’ve just cracked a little bit of the potential here,” Inman said. “If you’re buying a Pilates or golf book with pictures, wouldn’t it be great to have some demonstrations? Or a history book about John F. Kennedy having video of him from the early ’60s?”
Most of these apps claim to eliminate the “hassle” of switching between a book and a computer to research passages, comment via social media, watch videos and otherwise web-enhance the reading experience.
Even as the apps get more sophisticated, the general idea of e-books is becoming more ingrained into daily life, as libraries and schools are offering them to students and the public. Amazon has even started its own library-like e-book “rental” service, in which students can rent e-textbooks, which is infinitely more practical to people with limited backpack and shelf space.
Students can also keep their digital margin notes and text highlights in Amazon’s cloud via its Whispersync technology, even after the rental expires. And those books can be downloaded not only to the Kindle but also on laptops and mobile devices.
Change in an eyeblink
While e-books make up less than 10 percent of worldwide book sales, their rise has been precipitous. E-books accounted for $3.9 billion out of a $75.8 billion total market in 2010, according to a recent report from Outsell.
That’s a 64 percent uptick from 2009. By 2013, Outsell predicts that e-book sales will triple over last year and rake in nearly $13 billion by commanding 16 percent of the market.
That growth, the company points out, comes mostly from eating into print book sales.
With dozens of e-readers, tablets and apps — and millions of titles on various platforms — can you blame consumers for feeling a little overwhelmed?
“The devices are coming out so fast that in six months, whatever you buy is going to be out of date, yet still very functional,” said Outsell’s May.
“It’s not unlike the smartphone market. You kind of just have to step in, and once you’re in, you can tell what elements you value.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
The new frontier of e-books and apps
Speed Customers are adapting to e-books faster as devices proliferate and more free titles become available.
Sharing Some apps let you share or tweet what you’re reading at the flick of a fingertip.
Mixing Music, pop-up links and animation — like the dripping blood in the Byook Sherlock Holmes title above — reinforce the emotional involvement a book delivers.
Learning Libraries and schools offer e-book “rentals”; students can keep notes in Amazon’s cloud.
