Networked, Mobile, and Landlocked: Current Ereaders

Networked, Mobile & Landlocked Current Ereaders Liza Daly Keith Fahlgren Threepress Threepress liza@threepress.org keith@threepress.org

2010 versus 2009: Fragmentation vs. consolidation

2008 - Q3 2009: Format consolidation Mobipocket Everyone else

Consolidated on ePub Adobe Widespread adoption of ePub DRM and mobile SDK

Q4 2009 - Q1 2010 • B&N merged eReader DRM with Adobe DRM • No other support for eReader/ Adobe hybrid outside of • Landlocked readers may never be upgraded

Q1 2010 • Apple embraces ePub... • ...but will use its own DRM... • ...compatible with anybody?

Q1 2010 Blio • ePub + PDF bundle? • Compatible with anybody...?

Only 3 formats! Page-based Reﬂowable PDF ePub Mobipocket Some ebook know-it-all, Fall 2009

Requiem for an ebook shopper What has fragmentation wrought on the purchase process?

“Y ou sh all not pas s” Barnes & Noble Fictionwise Stanza ? Kobo

“Y ou sh all not pas s” Even though most of these devices and stores use ePub, Barnes & Noble there’s almost no way for consumers to understand which devices will support which individual books, and when Fictionwise books can be exported from cloud-based ecosystems. Stanza ? Kobo

Can you think of a single Don’t expect people to put up consumer product that is with this. so difﬁcult to buy? They have many easier choices for entertainment. (It’s hard to look at the previous chart and not conclude that DRM is the primary culprit.)

Three ways to segment e-readers: e-ink Last year at our talk, “A Survey of Current E-Readers” we looked at the market through this lens

This year, we’re focusing on ecosystems and usability: Cloud Interoperability

Consumers can choose to read on one or many of these devices.

Approaching Clouds

In a Cloudy World, Networking Wins Devices without web connections are not “landlocked”, they are “landﬁll”

Menacing Clouds? Privacy concerns and vendor lock-in are critical to consider.

Happy Clouds? But cloud-based systems offer users ﬂexibility and ebook capabilities beyond just text on screens.

Browser Required? Google Editions and others may offer browser-based clouds that allow greater access to the web and greater interoperability... maybe.

Discovering New Content OPDS BookServer and OPDS are part of the web ecosystem and suggest that books and other publications will be most easily discovered via the internet rather than single-point retailers.

Thanks! Liza Daly Keith Fahlgren Twitter: @liza Twitter: @abdelazer liza@threepress.org keith@threepress.org

Networked, Mobile, and Landlocked: Current Ereaders

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Networked, Mobile, and Landlocked: Current Ereaders Presentation Transcript