Much like the music stores on our high street which are closing in their droves, I can’t help but think that the book store will soon follow. That’s not to say that the shelve life of the book (excuse the pun) is over, quite the opposite, but that devices such as the Kindle and the iPad will lead to a fundamental shift in what we actually classifying as a ‘book’ and have a significant impact on how we purchase and consume the written word. With online stores such as Amazon, and the recent advancements in e-book technology, challenging the business models of many of the established book resellers on the high street, without significant effort to add value to the book buying experience, book stores risk going the same way as Tower Records et al: out of business…
But what does this mean to the everyday book lover, such as me? As both a student and an avid reader of business and travel books, I am actually finding that I am reading more in the last 12 months than ever before. Taking the fact that I am a student aside (which obviously requires me to read a lot of content), the core reason that I have been reading more in recent months is down to one thing: my Kindle device and, in particular, the emerging Kindle ecosystem.
As a major early adopter of new technologies, I was quick to jump on the Kindle when the international version became available late last year and haven’t looked back since. Taking the price of the books out of the equation (Kindle books are often cheaper than their physical cousins) I probably read twice as much as I did previously. After a couple of minutes of use, the fact that you are reading a book on an electronic device soon fades away and you just focus on the content itself. I have literally spent hours at a time reading on my Kindle. The e-ink technology (that’s the one thing that the kindle has over the iPad) obviously makes this easier.
In addition to being a joy to read content on the kindle device itself, which means that I pick it up more often, the Kindle ecosystem has also acted as a catalyst to me reading more than ever before. With the Kindle app now available on the PC/Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android, even when you don’t have the Kindle device with you it is possible to access your content and pick up where you left off. Tube journeys and waiting in line etc can now be easily filled with catching up on a few pages of a book that I am reading. While you could easily carry a book with you, its heavy/bulky form factor means that it’s unlikely you would bother dipping into it during those couple of minutes of downtime.
Furthermore, the ability to have access to my entire book collection through the Kindle ecosystem (from the Kindle itself or my iPhone and iPad) is a significant benefit. As someone who is studying for a Diploma in B2B marketing in my spare time, I often have more than one book on the go at any one time. If these were physical books, this would be a back breaking inconvenience (I would be pretty fit, though). With the Kindle, however, I just carry one device and have access to everything. This is also ideal when I go on holiday. No more backpacks full of reading material. Perfect!
With these devices also coming significantly coming down in price. The Sony Reader, for example, is now just £99 in Waterstones, the whole cost argument is starting to go away. These are only going to get cheaper, I am sure…
With regard to the iPad, and its multimedia capabilities, I am looking forward to seeing more rich content such as video and social networking (virtual book clubs/study groups etc) incorporated into the book reading experience and challenging what we even consider to be a ‘book’.
Exciting times ahead!
Tim Bush (@tbush)
