It was touted as the Kindle Killer (of course, what isn’t these days?), the death of publishing, the savior of publishing, and the latest and greatest in technogadgetry. The iPad. People have been gossiping and letting the rumors fly as to what this could possibly be, and how it could be used as an e-reader. Turns out, the iPad is basically a large iTouch, with very few little new tweaks and treats to make it any different than any other tablet shown at CES 2010.
As for Kindle Killing and e-paper dooming, the poorly named iPad comes with a new iTunes for books called iBooks (which, oddly enough has nothing to with the Apple iBook laptop…), which is identical to several other iTouch book apps already in existence. We’ll take a look at both the device itself and the software, and see if it really has enough punch to knock out e-paper and e-readers (like the Kindle).
The Hardware
Let’s get this said right away, the iPad doesn’t use any form of e-paper at all, what so ever. It uses an LED back lit display that contains all of the eye strain issues that has plagued monitors and laptops since the invention of the CRT. So, if you’re looking for something that gives you lots of hours of easy reading with little drain, you can count out the iPad. E-paper based devices will always win out in this area, since the whole purpose of the e-paper based screens is to reduce eye strain and improve battery life.
The iPad battery is impressive for an LED device (10 hours), but without removing the eye strain there is no comparison. Especially when we have several models of e-paper with color and a better framerate/refresh rate coming out this year (Mirasol, et al). Once these displays come out in e-readers, the main benefits for having an iPad versus a dedicated e-reader vanish.
The key thing to remember when looking at the iPad and it’s hardware is that it is a multipurpose media device first and foremost, and an e-reader secondary. Because of this, it will never perform as strongly in the e-book market as dedicated devices, since the hardware is more geared towards visual media like movies and games, and less geared towards print media like books and magazines.
The Software
At first the software Apple debut for reading/buying books on the iPad seems impressive. It’s visually appealing, seems as simple to use as Kindle’s one-click to buy, and as intuitive as iTunes. But when you actually use the software itself, you’ll see that it lacks very many fundamental e-reading tools that we’ve taken for granted.
Sure, it’s got a neat page animation that looks a lot like real paper, and you can control it just like real paper. But it’s a gimmick (one that the Blio reader used well before this announcement), and it doesn’t make up for the lack of functionality found elsewhere. For one, even though the iBookstore is based around ePub, you will still need to order/download books directly from the iBookstore. You can’t just buy it from Fictionwise and move it wirelessly, or through the USB.
Secondly, you don’t have a bookmark function. You can’t highlight text, and you can’t add in your own notations. This seriously cripples any reader functionality, especially for the University/College bound crowd. This crowd would be a key audience for a full color, large screen e-reader, since it would replace the need to buy so many expensive, heavy, text-books. Without annotation and without simple bookmarking, the e-reader is only good for passive fiction reading.
The Verdict?
E-paper isn’t gone yet, not by a long shot. It’s pretty obvious that this device is not a dedicated e-reader, and people that love their Kindle probably won’t be ditching it for an iPad anytime soon. Even though a large number of publishers signed on to sell books at the iBookstore, the largest US publisher hasn’t joined up yet (Random House) and probably won’t in the near future. The iBookstore is also US only, so overseas users of the iPad will have to be book free, or rely on existing iTouch/iPhone book apps. Also, the books shown on the iBook store were priced a lot higher than those on the Kindle, which is a great thing for Publishers, but a bad thing for readers.
It’s a great piece of hardware, and will be really good for people who want to play games, watch movies and browse the internet without a computer. As far as e-readers go, it’s still lagging behind in all the important places. And once the next generation of e-readers come out this year with color screens, the iPad’s hype for the publishing industry will be a forgotten memory. In the meantime, it will definitely open up the e-book market, which will lead to a greater demand in e-readers.
apple, e-paper, e-reader, iPad, lcd, led
This is the typically uninformed kind of rant I would expect from someone who concentrates only on the technology, bot the experience as a whole. Sure e-ink and mirasol will bring out colour (and eventually video for mirasol) but it will not be the bright compelling experience that can be delivered by lcd or even oled.
The ipad is essentially designed as an indoors, sedentary pleasure station with e-book functionality. As such it needs good saturated color and video above all. Outdoors reading is not its use case, and as a single purpose device (your argument for pure e-readers) is pretty flawed as a business case.
People like color. Books need color. Reflective displays as currently known can never deliver bright saturated color. That is not my opinion, its physics. Get used to it. Pure e-readers are always going to be a niche product, the i-pad is designed for mainstream.
E-paper isn’t gone yet? It hasn’t even arrived! The next few years will show what e-paper is really about. But that said, the Ipad - although it’s far from perfect - is something for e-reader makers to stretch for. Imagine what we’d be saying if it had some kind of e-paper tecnology instead of the lcd screen. We wouldn’t have known which foot to stand on. And I think it could open up the e-reader market for a younger audience. The kids don’t give a damn about eye strain. By the time they do e-paper will be there in bright, crisp colours, video fast and flexible enough to be rolled up in an e-reader stick with integrated phone, flash light, laser level and what not.
“The next few years will show what e-paper is really about.”
Hear! Hear! You’re 100% correct about that.
” Imagine what we’d be saying if it had some kind of e-paper tecnology instead of the lcd screen. We wouldn’t have known which foot to stand on.”
Not so sure about that. The e-reader software is weak compared to the competition, and that’s a huge deal to me. Esp if it’s going up against the Kindle or the Nook, which has all the stuff this e-reader is lacking.
“And I think it could open up the e-reader market for a younger audience. The kids don’t give a damn about eye strain. ”
That’s also true (and makes me wonder about what will happen to them when they’re older- that constant strain on the eyes could cause long term damage, even if they don’t care about it). I do see this as making some people who would not buy an e-reader more into reading digital books, which will expand the market as a whole, and is a good thing.
“The e-reader software is weak compared to the competition, and that’s a huge deal to me. Esp if it’s going up against the Kindle or the Nook, which has all the stuff this e-reader is lacking.”
You’re right about that, but the Ipad has a lot of other nice stuff though. Stuff that will be on all readers eventually. E-paper is merely display technology, and will be on all computers/TVs as soon as it handles colours/video as good as is required. We shouldn’t limit our reviews of e-readers to their e-book capabilities. Actually, I think the most iinteresting aspect of coming e-readers is their capabilities to turn the magazine/newspaper publishers from tree-paper to e-paper. That is going to be a thriller with more cliffhangers than just display technology.
Oh you’re right- e-paper can do so much than just be used for reading e-books. I’m just saying as a personal preference, I would still be a little disappointed in iPad, even it used e-paper. But that’s just me
The iPad is a tablet first and an e-reader second. As a business Apple couldn’t wait for the technology to catch-up. Mirasol’s screen is washed out and not bistable.
If I were to make an e-reader it would use Gamma Dynamics’ EFD for its bistable full motion color screen. Then have Touchco (what happened to this company a week ago?) layer on multitouch with pen input.
I expect e-readers to take advantage of video and include speed reading (ex.; spreeder.com) as a basic function. I doubt the iPad has this as it would require refreshing the whole screen (not so with e-paper) and drain the battery.
I don’t believe apple intended to aim directly at the e-paper based market, but was rather trying to simplify the means of user interface, which is reflected through nearly all of their devices. This is done both through its software and hardware. For the most part, apple software has been designed to work seamlessly for ordinary use by providing simplified and effective methods of interaction, while also designing them to be as intuitive as possible. The layout for osX is clean and apparent, while navigation is made easier by stemming the need to search through menus and submenus.
The hardware in modern apple devices help to make the interaction virtually flawless. An iTouch is very responsive, and the software designed to engage with the hardware allow quick intuitive human interaction. Even with the older generation iPods, this remains true. This is also one of the reasons why apple products tend to be more expensive; they invest high quality parts ensure their hardware provides enough power to support their software.
If the iPad provides the same solidity that the iTouch has provided, I am sure it will prove successful. What we are seeing here is a new medium for general computing. We have til now always relied on the standard keyboard computer for interacting with digital media, however we haven’t yet explored many different mediums for digital interaction. Apple is presenting us with a device that is essentially an iTouch, however it allows us to explore different applications through this enlarged interface. So yes, it is an enlarged iTouch, but such enlargement allows different visual and physical interactions. I would be enraged if typing an essay on an iTouch even if managed to hook a keyboard to it, while I am already annoyed enough reading the news through it on such a confined screen. Those who are not bothered by this probably lack peripheral vision. With the iPad, there will still be applications which we much rather leave to the process of keyboard computing, like typing a paper.
As for the iPad lacking e-paper, I don’t think apple intends to incorporate e-paper until it can be applied in a seamless and intuitive device, which will ultimately depend on refresh rates and color. Apple doesn’t make any devices that it doesn’t believe won’t be perfect for the time, and is thus dependent on the technologies we have at hand.
The iPad was never intended to be a Kindle-killer, and those who claimed it would do not recognize what sets the Kindle and e-paper readers apart from normal computing. My prediction is that e-paper will become a dedicated medium for reading material and other similar tasks, while more animated graphics will be displayed with projected light. There is a chance that e-paper will make great displays for animations and graphics, perhaps even better than projected light screens, however its too difficult to tell for now. We won’t be seeing apple develop any dedicated electronic reader until e-paper technology progresses into a more desirable and responsive medium.