Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader- The beggining of the end of printed books

Having been in the publishing and IT industry for many years, I am very keen on this new eBook technology and I am quite happy about the Kindle eBook reader of Amazon. Amazon launched its Kindle eBook reader at $400 this month. Is it the end of printed books, magazines and Newspapers. I think eBooks will bring the end of the printed books although it will take some decades. In about five years from now most people exposed to the knowledge and IT industry will be using eBooks rather than printed books and it would take a few more years for the people on the other side of the digital divide to get used to the eBook. This I think is my safe and calculated prophesy. Amazon is going to market Kindle like how apple has marketed iPod. But since this is a new medium of reading it comes at a price. I am sure the prices are going to drop soon and I think thats when I will buy the eBook reader. For now I will be content with the Printed books and my laptop. The amazon eBook reader is limited by the propreitary way in which it handles the file types and also it is hardwired to the amazon.com site where we would need to order books from Amazon.

The underlying technology behind the eBook reader is simple. The most important challenges are the usability features. We already have eBook softwares on laptops, desktops and PDAs. But they dont give the feel of reading books. Lets hope Amazon and other players address these challenges.

With Amazon creating the demand for eBooks in the market through their branding, more and more players will follow. Competition is always good for the consumers. I am just waiting for the Japanese and Chinese to come up with an eBook reader at a throwaway price and which also supports standard file formats like Doc, PDF, txt, rtf etc. Amazon is banking on cashing in on selling paid content from their website. There is even a fee for converting PDFs and other file formats into their propreitary format. But I think when the usage of the electronic readers become pervalent there will be many new players who would pitch in and help remove all these restrictions.

We also have other products and from Sony we have the sony reader which apart from the eBook features also plays MP3 files.  Sony reader is cheaper by $100 and it doesnt have internet connectivity like the Kindle. People are also expecting Apple to join soon  and release their eBook integrated with their pod. So finally we will have a single device with is a Book, a computer, music system, TV, phone and it will be portable and mobile. With the printed book dwindling and the power of internet and digitization, this is going to affect the publishing industry in a big way. Having worked in the largest publishing group in the world I can understand and appreciate some of the changes that will happen. I can also understand the way publishing industry would have to change in order to accomodate for the technological changes. The whole process of copy proofing and typesetting will be redefined. We would save on a lot of paper. If newspapers and magazines are digitized that would save a lot of trees. Even publicity for new books would be highly internet centric and search engine rankings will become all the more important. It would become just very easy for people to author and publish their works in the internet blogosphere. Its going to happen soon and I am excited and I hope to clear up most parts of my Bookshelf and help my wife to use the space to keep her favourite things. 

Here are some interesting links:

Amazon Kindle : http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_ex 

About Sony Reader – http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/

Sony Versus Amazon – http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/11/amazon-kindle-v.html