eBooks – have they made their move?

It’s coming up to 9 months since I got an eReader and in that time barely a month has gone by without a new development in either the eBook or eReader space. I have been watching these developments with interest – recent events to note are the UK Kindle release and the growing dominance of applications (apps) to both sell and display eBooks.

Looking at the user experience of all these developments, for those who are happy to read a book on a back lit device, smart phones seem to offer a good experience. If you’re like me however, you may be willing to put up with the seemingly clunky eInk technology (which drives the eReader display) in return for a larger page display and more importantly, an eye-strain free read.

Once you have decided on your device, convenience and price remain the paramount drivers to the purchase of  eBooks. However, I hasten to add these factors need to be measured against the experience of using the interface from which you are purchasing and managing your eBook collection. From what I’ve seen in this arena, apps for smartphones are way ahead of eReader software. In the past 9 months of having my eReader, there hasn’t been any updates to the pc based Sony interface that manages my collection (where books are displayed in a Windows Explorer style text interface). This display appears dated in comparison to the iTunes interface that allows books to be downloaded to your smartphone and displayed via cover (allowing for visual recognition) wherever you have an internet connection.

Now onto price, publishers are driving much of the development in the UK market in regards to driving sales of eBooks – where the cost of an individual eBook remains high. Penguin is the most recent publisher to launch an app (a clever way for publishers to increase their revenue) by cutting out the traditional consumer buying avenue of the book store. These apps also allow publishers to have greater control over the ‘try before you buy model’ that is fast becoming the norm in popular release eBook publishing (where a user can download the first few chapters of a newly released book before deciding whether to buy it) giving publishers have real-time awareness of the success of any eBook that is offered through their app.

I’d like to see the eReader software replicate some of the user experience I have seen in the apps and the iStore. Ensuring the software connects to the web, will ensure updates are sent to users without them needing to search for them. Any developments in the display of the eBook collection will allow for increasing visual cues to aid in cross-channel recognition of books and make selections that much easier.

In the absence of these, I see no let-up in the rise of the consumption of smartphone eBook purchasing.