I must have drank some seriously potent iPhone Kool-aid while I was in San Fran for the Web 2.0 Summit. Ever since I have been back all I can even think, dream or talk about is the huge potential behind the iPhone. The problem is that some people, in some cases even Apple, do not seem to be fully appreciating the scope of what is possible here. 

The most recent example of a company failing to see the full potential behind this new platform is Penguin Publishing. I received an email from a colleague at the start of the week letting me know about a new application that Penguin released. It’s part of a broad sweeping initiative by the publisher to embrace the new social web, so kudos to them for finally jumping on the band wagon. However their iPhone application simply does the following, and I quote, “It makes the features of the Web site—the blog, book previews, podcasts, news and Penguin-specific book-finding tools—available on the iPhone.” Wow, awesome, but am I missing something here? What about the potential of literally selling people books to read on the iPhone through the application? They now have a direct channel to a medium that users can easily read their books on, why not skip over all the book re-sellers and simply sell the digital format of these books through their app? I dont get it! I am not saying that they should stop using book stores to sell their products, but the iPhone is a highly effective tool for reading books, why not go straight to the source? 

I recently downloaded Stanza (an e-book reader application for the iPhone) and blasted through Animal Farm in 3 days flat. The reading experience on the iPhone is an absolute pleasure. I actually enjoyed reading using my phone over and above reading a traditional paper back (I may just be a seriously early adopter though). The best part about it is that I never have to lug around another book with me. All I have to do is go to Stanza’s book store, download a new book and its with me everywhere I go. If the iPhone really is to become a new medium for content, why would Penguin develop an application that does not include an ebook reader so you can simply download their new releases and old classics directly into your phone while your on the go?

The other element of this whole debacle that eludes me is why Apple has not made an e-book reader part of their own native application bundle. They have an internet browser, a music and video player, a camera, but no book reader. If this is really going to become the new media device of the future, they certainly should include the most trusted form of content … text! And whats more is they have the perfect distribution channel to be selling e-books through; iTunes! They already sell audio books, why not sell ebooks also to be read directly through an application on their phone just like MP3′s. Hell they can even include DRM for all I care, to get the publishers on the board. 

There is a lot of potential here in the field of text based content on the iPhone that a lot of people seem to be looking over in favour of more flashy features. I love all the potential behind some of these new innovative features but In my opinion (please keep in mind the line I stated off with, that I definitely drank some potent iPhone kool-aid) the iPhone has the potential to destroy Amazon’s Kindle business and in turn the future of Amazon’s e-book sales. Who wants to lug around an extra device or another book when you already have everything you need in your pocket? Not me, thats for sure.

Amazon Growth Slows a Bit; No New Kindle in 2008: Publishers Weekly

CFO Tom Szkutak said that while sales of the Kindle have exceeded expectations, it does not plan to release a new version of the e-reader until 2009 “at the earliest.” He noted that Amazon has ramped up manufacturing capacity for Kindle, and the device is in stock. When the Kindle was introduced last November, the readers quickly went out of stock. Amazon said the e-book reader now accounts for more than 10% of unit sales for books that are available both in digital and print formats. Bezos said purchase of e-books is “additive” to sales of print books with Kindle e-book buyers tending to buy as many print books in addition to e-books.

Oprah Comes Out For Kindle: The Guardian

Today in Chicago, and on TV screens across the USA, Oprah Winfrey is going to recommend her new “favorite gadget,” which is Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. A brief video has appeared on Amazon’s website to plug the show — as spotted by Chris Nuttall at the Financial Times — which will also feature a guest appearance by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Kindle in the University: Brave New World Blog

Yale, Oxford and the University of California have all adopted Kindle programs, and now Princeton University Press will begin publishing Kindle-edition textbooks, launching, Robert Shiller’s new economics book “The Subprime Solution” on the device two weeks before the hard copy. Princeton plans to roll out hundreds of books through the Kindle’s online store. The questions over over the commercial ‘revenue sharing’ arrangements are between the parties and whether , as some may say, Amazon is buying trade. 

I am one of those 395,000 people and can say that I love their application. The form factor on the phone does make it hard to read the books at times, however if they were to integrate Spreeds technology into their platform, they could have a seriously killer application. I am very excited to see how this and the host of other e-book reader (that I am sure are currently waiting to be accepted by Apple) progress in the market. Maybe Amazon is wrong. Maybe people don’t want yet another device to carry around. Maybe people are happy enough reading their books on their phone while on the go and reserving the physical copies for when they get back to their home libraries. Only time will tell.

Don’t be surprised if all the new readers will sport E-Ink technologies. It is the only way of building a thin, durable device that has extended battery life. It’s rumoured that Amazon’s Kindle will still carry the best price point ($360) by a longshot. Some of the new features we are looking to play with are larger screen sizes and interactive touch screens.

The question still remains, do we want to carry a second or third device? Are these dedicated e-readers that much of an improvement to warrant their purchase? I’ve just downloaded an e-book to my iPhone.  Who knew that I was carrying an an e-reader in my pocket all along?

For those interested in a beta trial of reading longer documents (perhaps an e-book) email me suhail@spreedinc.com.

I am going to disagree with the general thesis here and say that e-textbooks are in fact cheaper, however the publishing industry needs to be innovative about how they package and distribute these products. Firstly, I am going to disagree with the fact that students can return their books for 50% of the face value. I am not too far removed from my university years to remember going back to the campus bookstore with a bundle of textbooks cradled in my arms hoping to come home with a nice sum of cash. Year after year I would be dissapointed by the measly amount of money I was refunded and in some cases the amount was so negligable that I chose to keep the textbook. Therefore to base an argument on the fact that students are receiving 50% of the money they spend on physical textbooks back seems flawed.

On another note educational publishers, like Taylor and Francis, are becoming very innovative in the ways that they are packaging their textbooks for students. Students can now pick and choose which chapters of the textbook they want to buy instead of forking out $1000 for the entire book. Many professors will only assign a handful of chapters as requird reading for a given semester and by only buying the chapters they need, students can greatly reduce the money they spend on textbooks.

Finally I need to address the fact that 3/4 of unviersity students said they do not feel comfortable reading textbooks on their computer and instead would opt to print them out. There are two points that need to be made here. Firstly, as e-readers become widely available (Amazon may actually be creating a Kindle specifically designed for students … think easy highlighting and in-line note taking) students will find that they only need to pay for the upfront cost of the reader and that reading using tools like the Kindle are actually even more comfortable than reading on printed paper. This will greatly reduce the cost of going to the copy shop and printing out an entire book. However, publishers must not disregard the fact that 75% of students said that they would not feel comfortable reading on a computer screen. Most students in the early days will not buy Kindles and the publishers and e-book distributors need to find ways of making students more comfortable reading on their screens if they want to make e-books economically attractive. This has been a major topic of focus for us here at Spreed. We are dedicated to the field of eye science to understand how the end-user receives information from a monitor. We have developed a very unique way of displaying text on a screen so that students may find it far easier to read their textbooks on their computer instead of printing them out. Publishers must search to find ways of presenting their textbooks on computer screens in a way that students will not feel the need to run to the copy shop.

The bottom line is that the article really only gives one side of the story and does not look too far into the future. The trends are pretty clear and as publishers and students become more comfortable with this changing industry, we will find that e-textbooks are far cheaper and superior in quality to the printed textbooks of the paste. However, please take a look at the LA Time’s article that can be found below and come back here to leave your thoughts on this topic.

E-textbooks may not be cheaper than printer ones, report says: LA Times

A sharply critical report released Monday asserts that commercial publishers are going about the digital textbook revolution the wrong way. Commercial e-textbooks are no cheaper than hard-copy editions when you take into account that students can sell print books back to the bookstore for half the cover price, according to the report from a national coalition of student public interest research groups. And restrictions on printing and online access make commercial e-books unfeasible for many students, the report said.

The big question for me is that even though these numbers are high, can e-books really win over the mass-audience. Two recent articles, one from Naomi Alderman and another from Peter Conrad of the UK’s Guardian give light to the different sides of this debate. Naomi on one hand advocates the move toward e-books. She is fed up with the piles of books overwhelming her apartment and finds the Kindle easy to use and convenient. Peter on the other hand stuggles to accept that e-books are the future. He argues that reading ebooks actually left him feeling alienated from books he used to love growing up. These two perspectives highlight the seperate camps very well and it is hard to say whether either one represents the mass public at this point.

I personally do not think that we are going to see a sudden move to e-books in the next couple of years. The cost of an e-book reader is still a large up front investment when compared to the one off price of a paperback. What I will say is that in certain segments, where people have to buy large amounts of books that they must use on a regular basis, the student market for example, we will see a fairly substantial adoption of e-book technology. Students can offset the cost of the reader by only purchasing individual chapters of textbooks as they need them, thus reducng their overall spending on textbooks for years to come. This makes perfect sense and I see the student (as they often do) leading the proliferation . The only hurdle I see holding students back is the inability to easily highlight text. Yes, you are able to click and drag, but nothing will ever replace the relaxing sensation of passing a hightlighter over a line of text.  

This is going to be a very interesting industry to watch over the next 5-10 years and if the new projections are correct, Amazon is very well positioned to ride the wave (as they usually are). See Mark Mahaney’s numbers below:

The second limitation is Amazon’s decision to use e-ink. Again, they’re trying to replicate the traditional reading experience. Less light being emitted from the page means fewer saccades (eye movements) which means a slightly more pleasant experience. But at what cost? E-ink is necessarily a picture of the page. It is not HTML or any dynamic code, and that renders the device little more than a picture window. Obviously, Spreed is all about leveraging the power of the computer to assist and improve the reading experience, so our bias here is pretty transparent. But by opting for e-ink, rather than a traditional browser, the Kindle forces itself into a corner and prevents the user from using the device in so many other ways.

Thankfully, there are others out there who are moving in the right direction. Case in point: Polymer Vision’s new Readius. Check out this article from the New York Times that describes the Readius in more detail.

The Readius is trying to offer pretty much everything that the Kindle does. Only it meets the two criteria above – it’s pocket-sized (therefore truly mobile) and is not limited by e-ink. Take a look at the picture and it’s not hard to imagine the device as a phone. Isn’t that exactly what we really want?

Congratulations to Polymer Vision for taking us one more step in the right direction.