We need an Apple device that doubles as a great ebook reader
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 29, 2008 at 7:30am
I guess I’m a contrary cuss, but despite a recent patent report, I still don’t think Apple is going to release a traditional tablet computer. However, I’d love to see the company offer a bigger version of the iPod touch (although it would probably bear a different moniker) for handling various type of media—including ebooks.
How about an iPod touch with at least a six-inch 800×600 display. That would be good for ebooks, as well as video. The bigger device would allow you to carry books along with your tunes, videos and other data. Apple could add ebook offerings to the iTunes Store along with the current selection of audiobooks.
There’s certainly a market for ebooks. EBooks Corp., which provides more than 70,000 e-book titles to consumers at eBooks.com, estimates that the e-book market will reach $220 million this year. “Five years out, the total e-book market will be between $3 billion and $5 billion,” projects Stephen Cole, managing director of eBooks, which has partnerships with 327 publishers worldwide, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Zondervan, Dell, Warner Books and Oxford University Press.
Andy Ihnatko has a fascinating Macworld blog on how Apple could make ebooks work. And why they should.
Andy only kinda likes Amazon’s Kindle, but says “Amazon took an existing concept that for years had been flailing at gaining mainstream acceptance, and built a total experience around it that makes this form of digital media suddenly seem practical and relevant” and adds “Come on … that’s Apple’s shtick, isn’t it?”
He’s right. And some extension/evolution of the iPod line could certainly make an excellent ebook reader.
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Ken Says:
Not for me. Ebooks are a non issue in my mind.
When I buy a book I want to be able to sit, relax and read it. When I’m finished I generally pass it along to a friend or two before it end up in the bookshelf to be read again in later years. That simply doesn’t work in the electronic world.
Then there is also the clearance sales at stores like B&N;, where you can try a new arthur for $4 to $6 - and that is the hardback edition. I’ve tried a lot of new (to me) writers this way - something that wouldn’t happen in an electronic world.
Posted on August 29, 2008
steveH Says:
Ken, my experience with eBooks is very close to what you describe as desirable for yourself.
I can sit/relax/read the book, day or night (the latter without keeping my wife up late because I don’t need to keep the lights on). And I can pass on many of the ebooks to a friend or three (legally). I’ve generally got a couple dozen titles with me, all in an iPod Touch (used to be some PalmOS device), ready when I want to read if I’m waiting for something to start. Or happen.
New authors? How does free sound? Or $7 or less, if they’re not one of the free selection. And yes, it’s legal; according to the publishers’ stated intent. Look at Baen Publishing’s Free Library, or Tor Books ebook offerings. Both offer ebooks in several different formats, DRM free, to boot.
Baen’s been doing this for several years, and their business has been doing quite well with this model. And their authors are paid as well as, or better, than by competing publishers.
Posted on August 29, 2008
Mark Lyndersay Says:
I’ve been an e-book reader for years, going from reading short stories and novellas (particularly science fiction) first on a Palm Zire, then on a Palm TX and now on an iPhone.
I trade the readability of a larger screen for the convenience of picking up a story whenever I’m stuck somewhere for more than a few minutes, waiting. E-Reader for the iPhone builds on software that’s worked well on the Palm and reads all my old Palm formatted files as well.
It isn’t a replacement for book or a larger screen, but it’s a great solution in a pinch. And I always have my phone with me.
Fictionwise has a very nice selection of publications.
Posted on August 29, 2008
GregA Says:
Although that patent is 2 years old and has adjustable window sizes etc, I agree that they’re much more likely to build on the iPhone interface than use an OSX interface.
Your 6-inch wish is quite close to the “the 1.5x bigger iPod Touch”, which would be 5.25 inches. Would having the portrait width (of a bigger Touch) the same size as the landscape width (of the current Touch) make it easier to design apps?
Posted on August 30, 2008
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Louis Wheeler Says:
Much of the acceptability of such a devise has to do with its size; it needs to be something that you can slip into shirt or back pocket. The IPhone has a three and a half inch screen with a much finer resolution than normal of 163 dots per inch giving you 480 by 320 pixels. The physical size is 4.3 by 2.4 inches.
An iPod touch with a six inch screen of the same resolution would be 928 pixels by 619 or a physical size of 8.3 by 4.6. This is an unwieldy size. It would produce an awkward devise that Apple is unlikely to produce. A shirt pocket would need to be less than 3.75 inches. A back pocket would need to be less than 4.75 inches.
Apple could use the 16/9 format to shrink the width to 1025 by 576 pixels or a physical dimension of 9.18 by 4.3. This is still unwieldy.
Apple is more likely to wait until it can get a screen with a higher resolution so the physical dimensions will be lower. The same number of pixel of a 6 inch screen of 960 pixels at 240 dots per inch yields only a 4 inch screen. This would yield an iPod Touch of the same physical dimension as now with a much finer resolution.
This is a much more likely course for Apple. So I expect an iPod Touch of above 4 inches but less than 5 at a higher dot resolution.
Posted on August 29, 2008