There’s a lot of recent developments in the publishing business. And some of it is pretty revolutionary. I finally had a chance to play a little bit with the Amazon Kindle and I actually love the E-Ink screen and the long lasting battery. It provides a reading experience very similar to a real book, especially if you have a nice, leather case for it that pretends to be a hardcover. But the point is to have your entire Library in your … well, bag – since it won’t really fit in your pocket unless you’re really really big ;)
But there will be changes (as I predicted a while ago). The whole thing occurred to me for a couple of reasons. And here’s what they are:
E-Books outsell “real” books
Amazon has announced that e-books sold more copies recently than real, paper books. That means there is a market for it. That means people read (still), and that also means we will see changes in the publishing business. What changes?
Well first of all an evolution of the e-ink format that could provide color and high quality. Because seriously it doesn’t have to move and it’s not supposed to be backlit if you’re into READING books instead of browsing them. Second thing is the revolution of the devices themselves. Sure they have very long lasting batteries but would it hurt to make them fully solar powered if e-ink is so power efficient? That would make it more like a real book – not needing to plug it in at all.
Rich-content e-books / e-magazines
What I mean by rich content is actually more of a mashup between a book/mag and a website = you can read it, browse pictures (and enlarge them), play ocassional on-the-site video and stuff like that. But for it to be truly revolutionary there needs to be something more revolutionary about it than being just a website with an RSS feed and an adjusted interface (iPad magazine apps are fine examples of that – they’re fine but they’re like a webpage mostly). So either a new and better UI, or more content being downloadable and adjustable to the needs of the user. If I own a Mac and I purchase a gadget magazine, chances are I won’t be interested in Sony’s new netbook.
But there is an even better way.
Flipboard!
Flipboard is basically a social aggregator and since we already go to links that our friends tweet or post on facebook, it does most of the work for us, presenting us the content our friends share, in a digital magazine form that’s simply beautiful. Also it suggests it’s own topics you might want to read. So if you have a 3G connection you’ll ALWAYS have content to read. And it’s being tailored to your needs and expectations. Watch the video above to see for yourself. It only works on iPads right now but I think it will be ported to other tablet devices soon, as this idea is too big and too great to be locked to just one platform. Best part? It’s FREE!