E-Books and E-Publishing Primer

Published by: WhatTheyThink.com

Published: May. 9, 2009 - 79 Pages

Table of Contents

Introduction

Defining Our Terms

A Note About Orthography

Historical Background

About the Present Report

How This Report Is Organized

For More Information

Section 1: E-Book Formats and Readers

Hardware Devices

Historical Background

Gemstar

Franklin eBookMan

The Current Landscape

Amazon Kindle

iRex iLiad and Digital Reader

On the Horizon

Software Formats

All Purpose Document Formats

Text Files (.txt)

Word Files (.doc)

Portable Document Format (.pdf)

Hypertext Markup Language (.html)

Specific E-Book/E-Publishing Formats

Adobe Acrobat/Acrobat eBook Reader/Digital Editions

Amazon Kindle (.azw)

eReader (.pdb)

IDPF/EPUB (.epub)

Microsoft Reader (.lit)

Mobipocket (.mobi or .prc)

BBeB

Other Formats

Online Books

Project Gutenberg

NetLibrary

Google Books

Onward

Section 2: Digital Periodicals

Zinio

Texterity

NewsStand

Qmags

AvantGo

Changes in Digital Editions

Onward

Section 3: E-Paper

E Ink

Other E-Paper Developers

Fujitsu

Plastic Logic

Polymer Vision

Onward

Section 4: Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of E-Books

Portability

Searchability

Linkability

Highlighting and Annotating

Type Size Adjustability

Incorporation of Multimedia

Low Cost

Relatively Easy to Produce

Easy and Inexpensive to Distribute

Environmental Responsibility

Disadvantages to E-Books

Too Many Formats

Power Requirements

Hardware or Software Requirements

Fragility of Reading Devices

Fragility of Digital Data

Theft Potential

Low Readability

Limited Choice

Lower Quality

Difficulty of Copying

Ease of Copying

Loss of “Look and Feel” of Books

Loss of Browsability

Environmental Responsibility

A Sexy Medium?

What Offsets What?

Section 5: Players and Products

E-Book Hardware Manufacturers

Amazon (www.amazon.com)

iRex (www.irextechnologies.com)

Sony Corporation (www.sony.com)

E-Book Software Readers

Adobe (www.adobe.com)

Amazon (www.amazon.com)

eReader (www.ereader.com)

Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)

Mobipocket (www.mobipcoket.com)

Portable Devices That Support E-Book Readers

Apple iPhone (www.apple.com/iphone)

PalmOS handhelds and Smartphones

Windows Mobile Devices

Pocket PC

Smartphone

Symbian OS Devices

RIM BlackBerry

E-Bookstores

Adobe Digital Editions (www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/library)

Amazon.com (www.amazon.com/kindle-store-ebooks-newspapersblogs/

b/ref=topnav_storetab_kinh?ie=UTF8&node=133141011)

Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com) (E-books coming in Summer 2009)

eBooks.com (www.ebooks.com)

eReader (www.ereader.com/)

Fictionwise.com (www.fictionwise.com)

Microsoft Reader (www.microsoft.com/reader/find/new_releases.aspx)

Powell’s Books

(www.powells.com/ebookstore/ebooks.html?margin=eBooks)

Sony Style (http://ebookstore.sony.com)

Digital Periodicals Providers

Zinio (www.zinio.com)

Texterity (www.texterity.com)

Qmags (www.qmags.com)

NewsStand (www.newsstand.com)

Online Books

Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.com)

NetLibrary (www.netlibrary.com)

Google Books (http://books.google.com)

Section 6: General Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations

E-Book Sales Data

Kindle Demographics

E-Book/E-Publishing Outlook

Back to the Future

Lingering Questions

Multifunctionality

Enter iMags

Is It the Future Yet?

Implications and Recommendations

For Book Publishers

For Magazine and Newspaper Publishers

For Commercial Printers

For Creatives

The Final Word

Table of Figures

Figure 1: THE RCA REB 1100 E-Book Reader

Figure 2: The Franklin eBookMan

Figure 3: The Sony Reader

Figure 4: The Amazon Kindle

Figure 5: The Kindle for iPhone App

Figure 6: The iRex iLiad

Figure 7: The iRex iLiad Book Edition

Figure 8: The iRex Digital Reader

Figure 9: The Fujitsu Flepia Color E-Book Reader

Figure 10: The Now-Defunct Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader Interface

Figure 11: An E-Book Purchased from Fictionwise.com Can Be Read on the eReader E-Book Reader on the iPhone

Figure 12: The Microsoft Reader Interface

Figure 13: A Fairly Typical Project Gutenberg Entry

Figure 14: The Zinio Reader Manages, Downloads, and Displays Digital Magazine Subscriptions

Figure 15: Texterity Technology Provides the Underpinnings for Publishers’Digital Magazine Offerings

Figure 16: The NewsStand Reader Lets You Subscribe to and Read a Wide

Variety of World Newspaper in Digital Form

Figure 17: Qiosk’s QMags Can Be Downloaded and Read via Adobe Reader or Acrobat

Figure 18: E Ink's Microcapsules

Figure 19: The Readius Pocket eBook Reader from Polymer Vision

Figure 20: A Printed Book Will Never Give You an Error Message

Figure 21: Book Categories as a Percentage of Book Sales, 2008

Figure 22: E-Book Sales, 2003-2008

Figure 23: Change in Magazine Circulation, Population Growth, and Magazine Titles, 1970-2008

Table of Tables

Table 1: E-Book Advantages and Disadvantages Summary Table

Table 2: Monthly Book Sales, January-February, 2009

Table 3: Estimated Net U.S. Book Sales, 2002-2008

Abstract

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