According to the WSJ, HarperCollins Publishers is in talks with Apple about providing ebooks for Apple’s yet-to-be-officially-announced tablet. It’s speculated that ebook markets such as Amazon’s would suffer if such an arrangement were finalised.
The reason Amazon would initially have something to fear, based on what Brian Murray, the chief executive of HarperCollins, is claiming is that “ebooks enhanced with video, author interviews and social-networking applications could command higher retail prices for publishers than current ebooks” in the future. Apple’s tablet would, of course, be ideal for such enhanced content.
Ah, I suppose we’ll be able to speculate some more on January 27, in the meantime – on the tablet or not – “enhanced ebooks” sound like a blast. Just imagine how often you’ll say that something was way better with the author commentary. [WSJ]
Timothy Bos
January 19, 2010 at 1:47 PM
I’m still not convinced that LCD/OLED based systems as eBooks are legitimate competitors to eInk.
If anyone has tried reading books with an iphone or laptop computer, they will know the amount of eyestrain you get after about 30 minutes of constant reading (mainly due to the backlighting and the lack of sharpness). Compare that with an eInk style ebook, and you don’t get eye-strain even after hours of reading.
If the ink is too dark, you can get a booklight.. just like a normal book. But if an OLED/LCD based eBook is too bright… there’s not much you can do about it.
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January 19, 2010 at 6:32 PM
I use my iPhone to read books for hours at a time without any problems. Even with the iPhone, if it is too bright for the ambient light conditions, you can just turn the brightness down from within the eBook application.
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