The oldest digital library, Project Gutenberg, was founded in 1971. The first digitized work created by Project Gutenberg was the Declaration of Independence. Project Gutenberg is still going strong today with over 100,000 titles and 30,000 available for free.
Digitized books were great, but they had to be read on a computer. Then, in 1998, the first portable eBook readers were introduced. The eBook reader and the Rocket eBook were the pioneers of portable eBook reading.
Gemstar bought the rights to these two eBook readers and even promoted their version on Oprah. But with a limited selection of books, conflicting formats, and high prices, even Oprah couldn’t usher in the first e-book readers.
In 1999, Franklin introduced the eBookman, which also had a PDA function and could play and record sounds.
Philips also created an e-book reader that pioneered the use of e-ink electronic paper. In 2006, Sony introduced its first eBook reader, the Sony Reader, which featured electronic ink. Sony also has its own e-book store.
With a sophisticated handheld device and e-books available, portable e-book readers are starting to catch on and become a viable option. The following year, in 2007, Amazon launched the Kindle in the United States.
What made the Kindle revolutionary was that it had a built-in wireless network called Whisper and was backed by the huge selection of e-books in the Amazon store. Plus, with the click of a button, you can purchase and download an eBook in 60 seconds. Because your Amazon Kindle was linked to your Amazon account, you didn’t have to worry about payments and credit cards.
Another nice feature of the Kindle is that you can download the beginning of any Kindle eBook for free. So there’s no excuse for buying a book you don’t really want to read.
In October 2008, the Kindle got a kick in the pants, when Jeff Bezos appeared on Oprah, with the Kindle. Oprah called the Kindle her new favorite device and Kindles were handed out to the audience.
After Oprah’s show, the Kindle went out of stock, remaining out of stock and on hold until the Kindle 2 was introduced in 2009. The Kindle 2 was an improvement over the first Kindle, with a slightly sleeker look and more vivid text and better storage and battery capacity.
Months later, Amazon introduced the Kindle DX, which is similar to the Kindle 2. The DX is larger and has better resolution, higher memory and battery capacity, and can read native PDF files. Additionally, the screen can rotate from portrait to landscape view, making it easy to view charts and graphs.
The new large-screen Kindle is rumored to lead the way to the Kindle textbook market. Imagine saving money on textbooks, carrying everything in one lightweight device, and no more long lines at bookstores.
IRex also makes a large-screen digital reader, it costs about $400 more than the Kindle DX and has a touch screen that can be marked with a digital pen.
Where there is a market there is competition. As digital readers evolve they will become more ubiquitous, think of the iPod. Today, most eBook readers are still early adopters. Although, there have been some informal studies showing that the Kindle demographic is an older crowd.
This could be because older people like to read more or have more disposable time and income. Some even speculate that it is due to the adjustable text size on the Kindle. Without glasses, no problem.
Whatever the reason, as available books and functionality increase while prices drop at the same time, a tipping point will be reached. And having an electronic book reader will be as common as having an iPod or a cell phone.
