The Samsung Galaxy Tab (above) running Zinio's app can get you hundreds of newspapers from around the world anytime, anywhere.Looking at two of last year's hottest products, Amazon's Kindle 3 and the Apple iPad, were starting to see a clear path towards the ubiquity of highly portable devices that can double as eReaders for various materials (be it websites, books, magazines or newspapers) with them.
The distribution and consumption of content on tablets, ebook readers and other devices such as larger smartphones and even portable gaming consoles makes sense now more than ever. Screen technology has improved exponentially, many devices come with Wi-Fi built-in, which makes the access and purchase of titles on-the-go
Today's latest crop of connected devices can double nicely as ebook readers. As users. we can either go device specific (like Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook or Kobo's Reader) or we can opt for using app software in our tablets or smartphones.
What's most notable about the eBook reader model is that the device is just the first part of the equation. Users can decide whether they want an all purpose tablet (like the iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab) that can run multiple eReader apps or if they are satisfied with having a Kindle-type device that's tied to only one source of content.
We believe electronic, portable reader devices are a no-brainer solution for newspapers, magazines and serialized content. Once you are done reading the content it can be archived or deleted easily, hard drive space costs next to nothing when you consider the diminutive footprint that mostly-text files carry.
For students, who pay a fortune for shoddily-rehashed and often bulky textbooks, a Kindle-like device which can manage thousands of pages worth of information makes total sense.
New Edition? No problem, just beam up the updated chapters, references and marginalia and everyone with a subscription gets it within minutes. There will be no problems with copyrights, photocopying and reselling of used textbooks either as it seems that eReader devices are strictly attached to digital rights management.
In a lot of university courses, two or three textbooks by different authors are chopped and merged to create a more targeted curriculum but this often results in additional print runs and uses up a lot of paper, production, transportation and storage resources.
This sort of tailored hodge-podge can be achieved a lot better and more efficiently if it is done centrally to one file and then disseminated to all the users for that specific course.
There seem to be other perks as well, the new Kindle offers a passable text-to-speech technology which can read the content of the text files to the user. This may not be ideal for most as it sounds robotic and monotonous but has its advantages for users with accessibility issues. This makes more titles available to persons with disabilities who now have access to books and newspapers that can essentially read themselves out loud.
At this year's CES, we expect to see an increase in the number of eBook readers and eBook applications on tablets. Hopefully there will also be nice selection of innovative applications and technologies that will make e-reading more compelling to a wider audience. improved e-Ink displays, colour options and more multi-touch and app integration features.