E-book Readers

The popularity of the Amazon Kindle, an electronic reading device, provides a glimpse into what is perhaps the future of publishing: e-books, a relatively new form of digital media.  Though special devices for reading electronic books — also known as “e-book readers” — were first conceived in 1968, they did not become well-known until the late 1990s with the Rocket eBook and the Softbook Reader, both of which allowed users to download content from the internet.  Neither product could contend with personal digital assistants (PDAs) when it came to reading e-books though, and both ended up as discontinued products.  The demise of these products indicated that the e-book market, in the early days of its availability, did not even challenge the print market.  Part of the problem was the success of the electronic devices themselves. In the 2000s, smaller PDA devices appealed to consumers, but their miniature size made prolonged reading uncomfortable and helped to relegate the e-book concept to a mere fad.
Enabling Devices

It was not until 2007 when the Amazon Kindle was released that people started taking e-book reading seriously, and its resurgence began.  Unlike readers that came before it, the Kindle does not require a computer or even a personal internet connection to access books of a reader’s choice.  It carries something called a Whispernet that allows the reader to access the Web without the use of an outside internet connection and without paying an extra fee.  It has a display that tries to imitate paper and helps to reduce eyestrain.  These more user-friendly features of the reading device and the offer of convenience made using the Kindle appealing and gave the concept of e-books more than a fighting chance at competing against the print version.  The success of the Kindle inspired the development and production of other types of e-book readers.  Though the range of enabling devices is limited, consumers now can choose between the Sony Reader, introduced in 2008 and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, introduced in 2009, as alternatives to the Kindle.  All three of these devices come with improved features over their 90s-era predecessors, such as wireless downloading, more paper-like displays, and much greater disk space.
More Convenience

Even with the improved reading devices, the e-book market is no match for the print book market.  Analysts estimate that e-book sales account for between three to five percent of the book market.  That could change with the many advantages that e-books have to offer.  Unlike printed books, e-books weigh nothing and take up no physical space.  With the availability of the internet, it is easy to buy an e-book and acquire it instantly.  This type of business model provides the seller with several benefits. Digital files cost very little to store and distribute compared to physical goods.  In addition to avoiding transportation and warehouse costs, the seller also avoids the need for a large sales force and the risk of inventory depletion, and all the attendant issues that come with a brick-and-mortar store.  The benefits to the buyer of e-books are also substantial.  To search for specific words, phrases, or passages, one merely has to type into a keyboard.  E-books do not require paper, so there is no need to cut down trees to produce one.  Sweetening the deal even further, e-books generally cost less than their printed counterparts since they do not require binding, paper, glue, or ink.  Truly, e-books offer readers more convenience than print ever could, while being more ecologically friendly at the same time.

Or do they?  It must be kept in mind that acquisition of the e-book readers cost money and the need to buy one before accessing a book could be a turn-off for some consumers.  At current prices, the cost of an e-book reader is equivalent to about 50 paperback books.   Consumers also have to ponder the durability of the device itself and how often it would have to be replaced through obsolescence or damage to keep abreast with their own reading habits.
Remote Deletions

The digital nature of e-books — their greatest strength – also might be their greatest weakness.  Already, there has been an incident where Amazon remotely deleted copies of “1984” and “Animal Farm” from all Kindles, claiming that the publisher of the Kindle editions did not have the correct copyright permissions.  Though Amazon has since restored the copies and adjusted their terms of service to bar future remote deletions, they have already demonstrated that they can remove a book from a Kindle as easily as the customer bought it.   There is no word on whether remote deletions have occurred with other e-book readers.  It does not matter what Amazon or any other company says about its own deletion policy; such an ability empowers would-be censors in government, who could order a company to delete a given book with the push of a button.  Specific laws or court orders are not even necessary.  If a party threatens to sue a publisher over a book, the publisher can have the books remotely deleted just to be safe.  With print, one would have to hunt down every extant copy — a far more difficult proposition.
Lack of Ownership

If the possibility of remote deletion gives a feeling of lack of ownership, such a feeling would be correct.  Sellers merely “license” e-books to buyers, usually to make buyers agree to anti-copying restrictions.  This is a necessary evil.  Since e-books are a purely digital good, a user can otherwise copy and distribute the e-books with little effort, harming the seller’s bottom line and the economic interests of the author.  However, licence agreements are very long documents written in dense legal jargon.  Most consumers are turned off by lengthy legal documents and usually sign the licence agreement without finishing it or fully comprehending their own obligations.  This behaviour is similar to that found in other industries where many consumers rarely read the full text of things like promissory notes, mortgage agreements and similar contracts.  A further risk facing potential buyers of e-books is that a seller can sneak in ever more restrictive provisions in the licence agreement without the buyer even noticing.
Illusory Benefits

Even the supposed environmental benefits of e-books may only be illusory.  Reading devices like the Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader require oil to produce the plastic, copper and rare earth minerals to produce the circuitry, and lithium to produce the batteries, among other resources.  These things need to be mined or drilled, and such activity impacts ecosystems as heavily as deforestation does.  As the market for e-books grows, more electronic readers would have to be made.  Moreover, as the market matures, readers that have stopped working would require disposal of some kind, which produces its own environmental problems.  Unlike paper, plastic does not easily degrade.

Keeping these caveats in mind, one should not rush to discount or eliminate printed books, since for all their bulkiness, customers actually own them.  Some may call the dangers referred to herein as speculative, but that does not matter.  E-books are here, and the time to address possible problems is now.  An ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure.