Introducing the Future of Reading

The original idea behind this research project was to dissect the possibility that the Kindle would bring about the demise of the paper book. By using what are called e-books the Kindle is a portable tool that can hold hundreds of books in one piece of computer hardware that is as easily transportable as any book. After researching however my focus was shifted to e-books in general and how the Kindle is helping these become more popular. I eventually came to my research question which is similar to my original with a different concept added on. It is Will the e-book replace paper books because of the hardware such as the Kindle, iPad, or Sony Reader or will it fail because of price cost and availability?

I feel as though this is an important question to answer as e-books are out there now however they are not growing to fullest potential. Could the problem be the e-book reader hardware or are paper books still considered the norm for now? If it is the hardware could a new device change how we read books for all citizens or is it a technology that just needs time for people to accept the change? These are all questions I was attempting to answer when I first started my research.

After researching I basically broke my evidence down into three specific groups. Those that are for e-books, those for the paper books, and those who like or dislike hardware devices such as the Kindle. Those supporting the e-book tend to state that the e-book is a cheaper more effect source for information. This new technology is the future and its only a matter of time before it becomes common place amongst all. The only problem that seems to pop up for the e-book is the price for which the consumer should be charged for each e-book. All supporters seem to think that the price is too high to justify not having a physical copy.

The next group is those that are for paper books. In researching this opinion it was hard to come up with a solid argument. However I did find one specific one in which the argument was that poorer countries still need paper books to help educate and improve standards of living. The other support for paper books is the fact that while cd's were replaced by mp3's they are still produced and still have a market although much smaller. Many feel that paper books can still have a market despite the rise of e-books.

The last group I focused on was the physical hardware that is used for reading e-books. The Amazon Kindle was the main piece of hardware that I focused on. The Kindle had some positive reviews however the majority thought that it was ugly, hard to read the text, slow Internet, and limited ability other than e-books. With the recent release of the iPad many have questioned which would be better? While the iPad is sleeker, more memory, and a better Internet service (although you have to pay) it seems confusing that you can download a Kindle application for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that does the same thing as the Kindle however since you have an apple product your not limited to just that. Despite this the Kindle has still done surprisingly well because Amazon still has the largest library of e-books available to the consumer.
Lastly I feel it is important to address this issue simply for the fact that new technology that changes the print media doesn't happen everyday. We went from scrolls, animal skins, to paper, and now to digital these changes are not everyday items. In fact most of these changes took time much like the e-book revolution will too.