The oldest digital library, Project Gutenberg, was founded in 1971. The first digitized work created by Project Gutenberg was the Declaration of Independence. Project Gutenberg is still going strong today with over 100,000 titles and 30,000 available for free.
Digitized books were great, but they had to be read on a computer. Then in 1998, the first portable e-book readers were introduced. The e-book reader and the Rocket e-book were the pioneers in portable e-book reading.
Gemstar bought the rights to both e-book readers and even promoted their version on Oprah. But with a limited selection of books, conflicting formats, and high prices, even Oprah couldn’t usher in the first e-book readers.
In 1999, Franklin introduced the eBookman, which also had a PDA function and could play and record sounds.
Philips also created an e-book reader that pioneered the use of e-ink e-paper. In 2006, Sony introduced its first e-book reader, the Sony Reader, which included electronic ink. Sony also has its own e-book store.
With a sophisticated portable device and e-books available, portable e-book readers are starting to catch on and are becoming a viable option. The following year, in 2007, Amazon launched the Kindle in the US.
What made the Kindle revolutionary was that it had built in a wireless connection called a whispernet and was backed by the huge selection of e-books from the Amazon store. Plus, with the click of a button, you can purchase and download an e-book in 60 seconds. Because your Amazon Kindle was linked to your Amazon account, you didn’t have to mess with payments and credit cards.
Another cool feature of the Kindle is that you can download the top of any Kindle e-book for free. So there is no excuse to buy a book, you don’t really want to read.
In October 2008, the Kindle received a kick in the pants, when Jeff Bezos appeared on Oprah, with the Kindle. Oprah claimed that the Kindle was her new favorite device and Kindles were delivered to the audience.
After the Oprah show, the Kindle sold out, remained out of print, and on hold until the Kindle 2 was released in 2009. The Kindle 2 was an improvement over the first Kindle, it had a slightly sleeker look, and had more text vivid and better storage and battery capacity.
Months later, Amazon introduced the Kindle DX, which is similar to the Kindle 2. The DX is larger and has better resolution, more memory and battery capacity, and can read native PDF files. Additionally, the screen can be rotated from portrait to landscape view, making it easy to view graphs and tables.
The new large-screen Kindle is rumored to lead the way to the textbook market for the Kindle. Imagine saving money on textbooks, carrying everything in one lightweight device, and no more lines at the bookstore.
IRex also makes a large-screen digital reader, costs about $ 400 more than the Kindle DX, and has a touchscreen that you can dial with a digital pen.
Where there is a market there is competition. As digital readers evolve, they will become more ubiquitous, think of the iPod. Today, most e-book readers are still for early adopters. However, there have been some informal studies showing that the Kindle demographic is an older age group.
This could be because older people like to read more or because they have more time and disposable income. Some even speculate that it is due to the adjustable text size on the Kindle. Without glasses no problem.
Whatever the reason, as available books and functionality increase, while at the same time prices decline, a tipping point will be reached. And having an e-book reader will be as common as having an iPod or a cell phone.