I missed this article when it was published a couple of days ago, but it points to the possibility that Sony will soon be introducing a pliable, 13.3-inch reading device. There have been hints at these types of newspaper-friendly units for several years now – this one could be available in late 2013.
A few short articles about 2012 sales figures:
Ebooks now 1/5 of US book sales: Mashable
Ebooks account for nearly 1 billion in trade growth: Digital Book World
Ebooks account for 20% of US books sales in 2012: Good E-Reader
An interesting point about the above three articles is each respective author (or website editor) has his or her own way to spell “e-book.” I have struggled with this myself, mainly because there appears to be a kind of view emerging that the “camel-case” (or CamelCase) spelling – “eBook” – is “classier.” I think this is happening because people have become too influenced by brand spelling (iPhone, PowerPoint, AstroTurf, et cetera). However, it is incorrect. Forcing a lower-case “e” also looks horrible at the beginning of a sentence. If it is not a proper noun, one must be able to capitalize it at the beginning of a sentence. “EBook?” No.
Most dictionaries agree that the hyphenated “e-book” is the correct spelling. This is OK, but just as “e-mail” is now usually spelled “email,” I think “ebooks” will emerge as the standard. “E-reader” and “e-ink” will likely follow the same path. Note that the term “E Ink” with no hyphen is a brand company name, and I think the camel-case spelling “eReader” belongs to Kobo.
Looks like we could see colour e-ink Kindles at some point in the next year or two – mobile reading expert Nate Hoffelder has been following this story for a while and has today confirmed Amazon has purchased electrowetting screen tech subsidiary Liquavista from Samsung.
If you’re interested in getting an overall picture of ereading stats in the US, have a gander at this infographic provided by OnlineUniversities.com.
Via Tan Light, a Humber Publishing grad!
Check out this article on the increase in e-reading on backlit screens.
Probably not, but the rumours continue.
While this article features a picture of a flexible e-Paper prototype, the Onyx Boox won’t be flexible. The idea is that this ultra-thin display is less susceptible to damage. Once you get past that, the list of compatible formats is pretty impressive.
Dual-screen tablet devices are always interesting to those who follow ereading, if only because the devices often resemble actual books (although the success of single screen ereaders has proven this to be completely unnecessary for reading). Apparently Samsung may be planning to release such a device, in spite of the fact that previous devices have failed or even been cancelled before hitting the market. One of the major hurdles is battery life.
I’m not sure that I agree with Jani Patokallio’s conclusions in this angry blog post, but I can appreciate his frustration. Note that he is biased in favour of Lonely Planet’s PDF guides, because he works for them. I consider PDFs ebooks as well. Still, a terrific post.