Spoiled for choice
A few years ago we wondered if the ebook yes they would Read e-reader, such as the Kindle, or on tablets, such as the iPad. I also sided with this second party because I thought that with the e-readers not there would have been there possibility di develop content di new generation made possible by the advanced features of tablets. ebooks about e-reader they were, and have remained, some digital copies of the books and they have not added or taken anything away from it: their nature is to resemble them as much as possible. Jeff Bezos it was clear when, in defending the minimalism of the Kindle, he declared “what can we add a War and peace? Nothing!”. And instead there would be a lot of things to add for orientation il reader in the vast subcontinent of the romance. There are over 150 characters and someone even bothered to make one map of the places mentioned by Tolstoy and counted 212, (certainly more).
A recent one survey conducted by Nielsen, on a sample of 2 readers in the USA, showed that the majority of the readers digital have used too smartphone for read The ebook. Something unthinkable just two years ago. Discovery that confirms the axiom that in the digital world every prediction is a revision. Actually the response correct to question “What do ebooks read about?” it should be: it depends. it depends ontechnology and from circumstance in which the reader carries out the reading. Why the reader not have used un solo mezzo to read, but have used everyone he has available, exchanging them depending on contingency, as it does with shoes.
The birth of the hybrid reader/listener
La birth of this hybrid player it was rendered possible From one tech superfine as a molecular dish from El Bulli. This technology, developed first from Amazon with the service of whisper sync, allows synchronize il reading point through the various devices and reading applications of the same family related toreader account. Reopening the ebook on a different device from the last one used, the page that was left in the previous reading session reappears in the new one. The only requirement is that you have active, upon resuming reading on a different device or application, any Internet connection, wi-fi or telephone.
Amazon she pushed again further on to meet the needs of those ever more numerous readers which they choose to to listen a novel or essay. For 60mila titles available on Audible, the world's largest audiobook distributor acquired by Amazon in 2008, is available Whispersync For Voice is synchronizza the audiobook file with the version Kindle ebooks. You listen up to a point and then continue reading on your Kindle or app from where you left off listening. It also works the other way around. On the Kindle Fire , the Kindle app for Android can be read ed to listen simultaneously.
Also iBooks for devices Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), a Play books for those Android offer the synchronization service. Of course there is no interoperability between different systems, you can't start reading on iBooks and resume on Kindle: everything happens within the same family. A big problem that sooner or later we will have to solve for other reasons as well. To measure the distance between the rigidity of supply and the dynamism of demand, it would suffice to consider this fact. The habits of some readers let's say "evolved” (and they are not few) are such that these they read indifferently in digital and papery and they supply themselves with both versions of a content, to pass from one to the other with great ease. However, there is a disadvantage to consider: the book cannot be synchronized with the application because it is a material that does not conduct electricity. The reading point will have to be found by hand and skimming through liquid text is slippery. There is a special Amazon program that is called Kindle MatchBook, to which unfortunately only a few publishers adhere, who with thepurchase of the book It allows download the corresponding ebook with a price supplement of 2,99 euros. So you can jump from one to the other like from the bus to the subway with the same ticket.
The revenge of reading
Thanks to this ubiquity of reading on digital media, the writing is having a huge renaissance and, far from being supplanted by other, sexier forms of communication, it remains there spine of communication human as he was foretold Jacques Derrida in unsuspecting times, when all the maitre-à-pensers foresaw the death of the book and the succumb of writing and reading at the hands of the word and vision.
I behavior of the readers I am however changed from the days when Derrida defended the space of writing. Today, barring special situations, they are few to have a certain continuity time to sit and read for five hours in a row without interruption. I am also very many le people is not they want give up la reading and wish to continue it flanking her multiple activities that they carry out every day at work, in the family and in their free time and travel. That's it read negli time intervals, exploiting the most disparate situations in which they occur, has become theonly way to continue read called content books. It's about a hiccup reading, interrupted but not at all distracted once you have implemented a certain training and tuned your senses and intelligence with this method of using a cognitive content. What is the mezzo most suitable for this purpose? What is the means that thePresent in several = 80% of population He has always below, even during a church service? The smartphone!
Willem Van Lancker, the co-founder of Oyster the subscription-based ebook streaming service, sees it this way: “The best medium for reading is the one you have with you. It does not require any programming. The library at home is of no use to you when you are at the park”. And indeed Oyster recently stated that the Present in several = 55% of accesses at your reading service happens from one smartphone. Most users of the service read at night and for this reason Oyster has introduced an option in its app that facilitates reading in dark environments: it's called Lumin and reduces blue light emission from backlit devices.
The smartphone as a universal device
Here is that the development of technology and people's behavior have brought out a synthesis device like preferred medium for read: phablet, that is, a smartphone with a generous screen. It is said that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, which already dominates this market segment with the iPhone 6 plus, is working on a a new model lighter and more manageable. The Chinese market, which is becoming the first market in the world, is rewarding the smartphones of Large format and today it is precisely the users of the celestial empire who show the path of innovation. If we want to know where consumer technology will go, we have to look to China to understand. For example, at China la market share of ebook è top of that of the books. In the West where the book has a consolidated and deep-rooted tradition, the ebook struggles more to make headway. And in the end we will fall behind.
Judith Curr of Simon & Schuster, one of the top 5 publishers in the world, said "The future of digital reading is on the phone. It will be on the phone and it will be on the card”. A forecast that is still somewhat supported because, according to the aforementioned Nielsen survey, the Present in several = 41% of the selected sample law on a tablets (it was 20% in 2012) and the Present in several = 32% on a e-reader (it was 50% in 2012). Sustained, but not busted: the Present in several = 54% of the sample law occasionally even on it smartphone (it was 24% in 2012). However, the percentage drops to 14% when it comes to indicating lo smartphone like primary device di reading (it was 9% in 2012).
A trend that finds other confirmations. Apple says the Present in several = 44% of the download di e-books from his store takes place from iPhone and the user segment of theKindle apps on smartphone is that the greater growth among customers of Amazon.
Read on your smartphone
To read un ebook well done on a smartphone not è not a penalty at all, as is commonly thought, but a extensive experience similar from that of watch un video lesson. It can be done and it can be enjoyed. Today it screen of one smartphone he has one higher resolution to that of a printed book (Resolution defines the number of dots per square inch, ppi). L'iPhone 6 more ha 401 ppi against 300 for a book. THE characters I am more netti, Detailed e finished in the curvatures. The contrast è superlative (the contrast ratio is 1300 to 1), which means that the white is white and black is black and not an approximation of them. The background is such that not even the best coated paper can render, a paper used today for prestige editions. No ink printed can ever equal il black produced by a screen with a 1300:1 contrast ratio.
If then the publisher was diligent the legibility of a page of a ebook not may be equaled from that of a book industrially printed for the mass market. The page is airy, the space between the lines is generous and the paragraphs are clearly identifiable. The pages ebook not have a cost, when on paper they constitute a significant economic constraint. The ebook, however, must be designed and built well. Few publishers have understood this and therefore we see several editions that seem like a missed opportunity.
Then there is the question of size the screen is not that's how it is penalizing as it may seem. Today the medium size of a mobile phone screen is 5,1 inches when in 2011 it was 3,9. Then there are the phablet, those included between 6 and 6,9 inches on which one certainly reads better, but they have the inconvenience of being bulky to handle and weigh about 50 grams more of smaller mobile phones. But they can still keep with a hand and this is what differentiates them from mini tablets.
Il weight it can be, however, really a nuisance, because holding an immobile object in a suspended position for an extended time can strain the wrist and arm muscles and ultimately be uncomfortable. On this we will certainly see some significant improvements in the near future.
The consequences of reading on smartphones
The trend a read on mobile phones large format will have some consequences very import anti on the whole ecosystem of the book. Finally i big publishers, who continue to control the content and have invested very little resources in the ebook as an unsolicited supplemental distribution format, will be forced a pack of the products to be consumed on one surface small e crowded. Finally, 10 years after the introduction of the Kindle, we can start to see thatproduct innovation which has been completely lacking in the mainstream of world publishing. About this, Jennifer Maloney, the Wall Street Journal reporter on publishing, writes:
The growth of reading on the phone is forcing publishers to redefine how books are designed, marketed and sold in light of the smaller screens on which they are read. It is also raising concerns about how it will be possible to maintain the concentration necessary to read amid the swarm of alerts, rings and notifications happening on mobile phones.
Una challenge deadly for authors and publishers that they will finally have to confront seriously with this reality From great potentiality if they want to stay afloat in an increasingly rippling pond. Simon & Schuster seems to be fully aware of this. Liz Perl, head of marketing at the New York publisher, told the WSJ: “The option to read anywhere is amazing. It is our duty as publishers to track down these people”. Indeed, American publishers are starting to offer free extracts of them works from download downtown selected environments such as hotels, airport lounges, railway carriages and wherever a premium clientele is concentrated, among which there will undoubtedly be readers equipped with smartphones.
Those, and there are many, who still think that reading a novel on a smartphone is more like a punishment than a satisfaction can take comfort in the thought that reading on a phone is better than not reading at all. And there's even a better thought: those who read on a mobile phone won't stop buying, giving away and exchanging books. They will do it more than in the past, even if they don't have time to open them. But publishers could care less about that.
