Future of Reading!! eReaders Vs. eReaders.

For majority of commuters, their day starts when they hop on to a train or bus and start reading. Some would like reading books and others would take an update on what’s going around, so they read newspaper.

Sounds like history?? Well if not already, then it wouldn’t take longer to change the scenario…

A whole bunch of eReaders are already around and some will hit the market in next couple of years which is going to change the way we read and interact with contents. As we change the way we are reading today, publishers will have to think about newer ways to present the contents and make sure that they do not get pushed out of business.

Gadgets…

Samsung is in the market with Android 2.2 Froyo based Galaxy Tab while Motorola and Toshiba have just introduced Android Honeycomb based Xoom and Next-Gen tab respectively at CSE 2011. While talking about these smart devices I don’t want to miss out the RIM based Playbook but unfortunately they are still trying to fix Playbook’s battery issue.

Amazon Kindle has maintained the lead while competing with its e-ink based eRreaders i.e. Sony reader and Noble Nook.

Above all, Apple has taken a clear lead among all its competitors by selling roughly 10 Million iPads. Apple is expected to do better in current year, when it is targeting to reach 65 Million marks for iPad devices during 2011.

All these devices are not just the eReaders but they function like eReaders and open up the opportunity of presenting the same data differently or even think about new type of data.

Challenges…

Battery life and weight continue to be one of the deciding factors for anyone who is buying a gadget for reading. This is where e-ink technology comes in picture and takes a leap from battery life’s point of view. Some e-ink based readers like Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony Reader would continue to remain the fist choice for people who like reading book & novels more then blogs & dynamic contents.

Some devices have the challenge of not being so useful in the dark and the other once are not good in bright light. Keeping these constraints in mind I believe, all above mentioned gadgets are very good candidates for becoming preferred eReader while they experiment on the presentation layers.

Ease of Publication and Distribution…

Printing and distributing physical media have always been one of the significant costs and publishers have worked for decades to optimize the cost involved. Now with the new age media they have the tool they have been waiting for (I guess)…

Best part about new media (Web and eReaders both) is that you can build a distribution system once and then keep the operational cost down for a while.

Opportunities..

This media is opening new doors to the publishers where they can

• engage the consumer
• advertise differently to generate more revenues
• include images and slideshows for rich interface
• include audio visual contents along with a magazine or newsletter
• create magazine stores

Manufacturers will keep developing better hardware and better software support. They will all keep on optimizing the battery performance to enable longer battery life and reduce the weight. This process would also lead to more and more devices and more and more users in the market.

Some of the coolest version of print magazines are already available on different platforms and others are following. Sounds like exciting times are here; look forward to the positive change.