What’s consistent about all these eink ebook readers? The price. There is no real entry level ebook reader. The longer that I pay attention to the publishing market, the more convinced I am that cost is hugely important, particularly when you are selling a single function device. I know that e-ink readers are in their early stages but ebook readers are not. Ebook readers were first developed in 1991 when Sony introduced the Sony Data Discman. Gemstar launched its ebook reader in 2000. This has been revived as the eBookwise Reader, a grayscale LED that sells for $100-$130. Even if we were to peg the ebook readers birth with the release of the eink devices in 2006 with Sony’s first release, the PRS500, why can’t the publishing industry and the corresponding technology industry that overlaps, learn from past market penetration issues.

When Apple first introduced a single function device in 2001 called the iPod. It’s sole goal was to play digital music in a portable fashion. As the iPod has grown and evolved, there is only one single function product left in its lineup. It is the iPod Shuffle and it sells for $49. Every other portable music player in Apple’s lineup is a MULTI FUNCTION DEVICE. I had to shout that. (I feel like pulling a Biden. Let me repeat that, “every other portable music player in Apple’s line up is a multi-function device). From the Nano to the iPhone, the rest of the iPod lineup offers more than one functionality. As the bottom of the scale is the Nano and the Classic, both of which offer the ability to play videos and music, as well as store photos and games.

While all the eink readers have the ability to play music, it’s an afterthought, not an integrated part of the design. Further, because of the tiny memory footprint on these devices (all have less than 1 GB in memory), the music playing abilities do not transform the eink readers into a multi function device.

It’s not that I find it incorrect for manufacturers of ebook readers to put out single function devices. However, to put out single function devices at such as high cost when there are multi fuction devices available at a lower cost, what is the incentive for a person to purchase the single function device? Even those that love to read more than anything balk at paying plus $300 for a device that does only one thing.

While I laud Sony for taking a step forward and to offer competition for Amazon, it seems to me that it is missing a vital part of the market. It may be that the components of an eink reader are so expensive as to not permit a manufacturer from selling a truly entry level eink reader. Astak.com had been touting a sub $200 device that would have a 5″ screen, but in a relauch of its ebook reader site (hat tip to Bev QB), Astak has eliminated any reference to the 5″, sub $200 device. Instead, the consumer is told about a 6″ device which will be offered in late November 2008 and will cost $300.

I’m all for more fully featured eink readers. I love the touchscreen and I’ll love the Sony touchscreen + wi fi when it comes out. But is that really what potential ebook readers want? To gain the reluctant, but interested ebook reader, I think we need to have a sub $200 eink device. A $100 eink reader might be one of the hottest gifts of the season. A $400 one is a luxury good and with all the bankers on Wall Street losing their jobs, there just won’t be enough of those buyers to go around. In order for ebook reading to take off, it must have market penetration. why not offer up a device that is the “Must Have College Grad” gift. Because right now what college grad is going to aks for the $400 Kindle/Sony when they can get the $200 iTouch/iPhone?

If eink displays are too expensive, then maybe it’s time to consider other options. Maybe a 6″ LCD screen really won’t be that much of a bother to people’s eyes. It’s true that eink techology makes digital displays look like paper, but perhaps that is simply the wrong metric to use. With more and more people accustomed to reading on their laptops, then an LCD screen isn’t going to be foreign or even off putting to them. I don’t really know, from a technological standpoint, what the solution is. What I do know is that selling increasingly more expensive eink devices isn’t going to break open the ereader market, no matter how feature rich the device is. Either ebook readers need to go multi function or their prices have to come way down. Right now, the ebook industry is missing a major part of the market.

Related posts:

1. The Elements of a Perfect eReading Device
2. Dear Authors 2007 Christmas Buying Guide for Ebook Readers: The Dedicated Reader
3. The late 2008 E Ink Readers

***

So last week I finally got my Cybook Gen 3, the new e-reader from Bookeen. Since this is my first e-reader EVAH!, I was extremely excited and documented each step of the unravelling of the FedEx package:

The FedEx package:

If you open it on one side and peer inside,

that’s what you see:

And here’s the Cybook box itself (pretty cool, eh?):

And inside this box, there’s another white box.

And when you opened it, you’re presented with this view:

The leather cover for the device

(they actually sent me the wrong cover: not chocolate brown, but executive black – grrrr)

And here’s the Cybook itself in its pink protection foam bag:

And here it is! The Cybook!!!

(There’s still the protective foil on the screen, hence the reflection.)

Like the Sony, the Iliad and the Kindle it uses the e-ink technology, which makes reading the screen so comfortable and comparable to reading a print book. The Cybook is slightly smaller than a normal massmarket paperback and the mantle of the unit is made of plastic — a lot of people have commented that this makes the device look cheap. Still, the overall design is rather nice (especiall when compared to the butt-ugly Kindle!!!), even if the main navigation button at the front is perhaps not ideally placed.

The Cybook is very light and very thin. It reads txt, html, pdf, and prc (Mobipocket) files; as well as jpg, gif, png and MP3 files (i.e. you can listen to music while reading). The internal storage memory is 64 MB. However, storage size can be extended with a 2 GB SD card. The device is charged via USB (either by connecting it to the PC or to a USB charger), and the battery, according to the Bookeen website, will last up to 8000 page turns (i.e. screen refreshes).

You can upload books to the Cybook either via USB (the computer treats the Cybook like a storage device) or you can put them on the SD card. The whole uploading process couldn’t be easier, really!

So far I’ve read 1 1/2 books on the Cybook and I have to say it makes for very comfortable reading indeed, I haven’t experienced any sort of eyestrain whatsoever: the screen isn’t really white, but more grayish in colour (like a newspaper) and the resulting contrast between the black letters and gray background is rather nice. Still, as a first-time e-book reader I found it somewhat strange to read without being able to feel how I’m progressing through the book. Funny, isn’t it? I would have never thought that this aspect of reading is so important to me. But I’m sure in time I’ll get used to reading on the Cybook without suffering from a slight vertigo. :)

Some negative points:

• The organization of the library: at the moment library folders are not supported, thus in order to find a book you have to click through the pages of the library (now imagine if you’re using your SD card and have thousands of books show up in the library!)
• A minor irritation: the Cybook doesn’t always turn the page when you press the relevant button
• Another minor irritation: you have to press the SD card really far into the card slot to make it lock. (At first I actually thought my device wouldn’t take the card, but after some minor panic attacks, I tried again this morning and it worked like a charm when I used my fingernail to push the card in)
• A major irritation: Bookeen’s customer service. Or rather, their momentary lack of customer service: they don’t seem to answer e-mails from customers (or at least not on a regular basis), and what’s worse they don’t keep customers informed, e.g. about changes in shipping dates. And even though the Terms of Trade on their website explicitely state that in case one of the products is not avaible and has to be replaced by another, they will send an e-mail to the customer, we did not receive any sort of prior information about the exchange of the brown leather cover to the black one. Indeed, there wasn’t even a note in the Cybook box to explain the switch. Hello? You can’t just send a completely different product to your customers. On Saturday I sent an e-mail to Bookeen to complain about this switch, but who knows when or if it will ever be answered… Duh.

Update: I’ve just got an e-mail from Bookeen about the cover. Good!

Related posts:

1. International Author Series: Sandra Schwab, Germany
2. An E-Ink Device to Get Excited About?
3. REVIEW: Castle of the Wolf by Sandra Schwab

There are dedicated e-readers in every price range with the least expensive being the eBookwise and the most expensive being the Iliad.

Ebookwise

First up is the $100 device. The most cost effective ereading device on the market is the eBookwise. The eBookwise can be purchased via the eBookwise store (a division of Fictionwise) starting at $109.95. eBookwise also sells two bundled packages: an ereader with a 64 MB Smartmedia card and an ereader with a 128 MB Smartmedia card.

According to eBookwise, the typical number of ebooks per device is as follows:

The pros for the eBookwise are the cost, the size (slightly larger than a paperback), touchscreen, modem, and the integrated backlight. Samhain executive editor, Angela James, and blogger/reviewer, Holly, has an eBookwise. The modem allows you to hook up to a phone line and purchase books from the eBookwise store.

The cons are that to enjoy the use of the eBookwise, you really need a memory card and a conversion program that will allow you to convert html, Microsoft Word docs, plain text, and rich text format into the proprietary IMP format that the eBookwise recognizes. There are three conversion programs which work essentially the same: eBookwise Librarian $14.95), GEB eBook Librarian ($15), and eBook Publisher (free but requires technical knowledge). You can do one by one file conversion online for free as well.

Additional cons for the eBookwise is that the LCD screen is not easily readable out of doors; has one of the smallest screen sizes of a dedicated reader at 5.5" diagonal; does not read PDFs without conversion, limited options in terms of font and font size, and the Smartmedia card is expensive, low in memory, and is not easily available in local stores.

Sony Reader and Bookeen Cybook

The next jump is to the $300-$400 range for the Bookeen’s Cybook and the Sony Reader. These are two e-ink readers. I have the first generation Sony Reader and so my comments for that device are based on personal knowledge. The comments/comparisons I’ve included for Bookeen’s Cybook are based on reviews at MobileRead. The Sony Reader and Bookeen’s Cybook share many of the same technological functions. The only major difference is the housing and the software.

Generally, both devices contain a 6" diagonal eink screen (SVGA 800×600 4 grey scales). Eink is a superior ereading experience because of its paperlike quality. In the outdoors and with bright light, the eink really shines. Particularly amazing is the length of battery life. Because these e-ink readers use battery power only when the page is turned, it can last for days. My Sony Reader lasted three weeks with me reading at least an hour each day with some days having two or three hour usage. I even went on vacation with my Sony Reader and left the charger at home due to the longevity of the battery.

Both devices have an SD memory slot. SD cards are widely available and come in a variety of memory capabilities. At pricegrabber.com, a 2GB SD card costs $19.99 from Circuit City. A 2GB SD card will fit over 2500 books.

The major differences between the Cybook and the Reader are in software and the formats each device will read.

I have no idea which device would be a better purchase. On the one hand, Sony’s device is sold in the US and easier to get serviced if something goes wrong (i.e., you don’t have to ship it overseas). On the other, Mobipocket is more widely used format but that can be circumvented by using a conversion program to convert books in the LIT format to html. I read one user’s opinion that the Sony Reader had a heftier feel to it. If the Bookeen device feels cheap that would make a difference to me. For Mac users, the Sony is recognized as a USB mass storage device meaning that if you plug it into your USB port, your MAC will think it is just another storage device and you would be able to drag and drop files onto the Reader. With the Reader being $50 cheaper, I would probably buy that over the Cybook Bookeen.

MobileRead has a specific review of the pros and cons of the Sony Reader and the NAEB has one of Bookeen’s Cybook.

Kindle

It’s ugly and we don’t know much about it. Moving on . . .

iRex Iliad.

The iRex Iliad is a very expensive eink device at $699.00. The reason for the increased price is three fold. First, the screen size is bigger. It is 8.1" diagonal with 16 levels of grayscale (versus the 6" 4 levels of grayscale of the two previous eink devices). Second, the device has a touch screen that allows for editing of documents. Third, it has built-in wi fi and an optional Ethernet connection for direct access to the internet.

The device recognizes the following formats: Mobipocket, PDF (without encryption), HTML, TXT, JPG, BMP, and PNG. While it can connect to the internet via wi fi, it lacks an official browser. Email services like yahoo and gmail are not accessible and many sites do not render well.

Because it allows for editing and has wi fi accessibility, the battery lasts much less than that of the previous two devices. The iRex website suggests a 12 hour maximum. Using the touchpad for annotation, reading, and accessing the internet nets about 5 hours according to one MobileRead user.

MobileRead has a more fullsome review with several thumbnail images of the iRex Iliad in action.

The Recommendation

The Sony Reader for PC users and the Bookeen for Mac users but only because Bookeen supports the Mobipocket format. The problem with DRM is that it prevents consumers from actually buying the best device for their dollar. At $299, there doesn’t appear to be a sufficient reason to spend $50 more to buy a device from France that will have to be serviced in France if there are any problems. A PC user can avail herself of the Lit books (using a lit conversion program) that is available at nearly every ebook store but a MAC user cannot.

Related posts:

1. Dear Authors 2007 Christmas Buying Guide for Ebook Readers, Part 1 of 3
2. Multifunction v. Dedicated Ebook Reader & Samhain Giveaway
3. A Romance Buyer’s Guide to eBook Readers