The iPad can’t (yet) replace the $5.99 paperback I buy – and here’s why.
I read a fascinating article this weekend on why devices like the iPad may just about spell the end for printed books. The article (read it here) was written by Craig Mod and shared on twitter by Michael Hyatt.
Craig’s article is well written and well thought through, not to mention insightful and forward-thinking. However, it misses one very serious point in my opinion:
There are limitations to where I can take an iPad.
Sure, new tablet/slate/pad devices open up wonderful new possibilities for publishing and can help us redefine how we read and consume content. There are times though, when I just want to sit (or lay) and let my mind run rampant with the imagery in a good book – and many of those times I’m in places a $500 piece of hardware simply can’t go.
- I’m not going to risk dropping an iPad in the bath the way I would a book.
- I’m not going to lay on an inflatable in the swimming pool reading on an iPad.
- I’m not going to read from my iPad on the beach when at any moment my kids could drag me into a game or into the ocean for a swim.
The cost is simply too prohibitive.
If I put my $5 book down on my towel while I let my kids try to bury me in the sand and someone steals it then it will be annoying but no great loss.
If I were to put my iPad down on my towel while going off to play with the kids though, I’m just inviting someone to run off with a device that it would have taken me years to save up for – and there’s no way I’d take that thing anywhere near water.
I’m excited about the possibilities that the iPad and it’s competitors bring and I’m excited about the future of such devices but the future where a device can store and display my books and yet be cheap enough to risk losing at the beach or dropping in the bath seems a very long way away.
One day I will probably look back on this post and laugh at my lack of vision but today a starting price of $499 for the iPad plus $30 a month for a 3g data plan makes me think that it will be decades at least before I even consider not buying printed books any more!
Also, as far as I know, you can't lend a digital book to a friend. My pastor and I borrow books from each other all the time. We both got kindles for Christmas, and he's all like "have you read Donald Miller's new book?", and I'm like, "No, do you have it?", and he says I have it on kindle, and I say "Bummer."
The Kindle doesn't have that facility but I believe the 'nook' does.
Digital Rights management needs to progress a long way forward very quickly for these things to really take off!
Also, isn't it bad for one's eyesight to stare at a computer screen too much? I know, people do all day at work. So wouldn't those same people put their eyesight in jeopardy if they spend a few extra hours a day reading books they could have more easily read on paper? Also…. perhaps I lack vision, but I am in n way prepared to shell out for an ipad. I wouldn't take it out of the house for fear of getting robbed, and if I only use it in the house, my regular stationary computer does just fine.
You're right, Helen. The cost is a big issue. many people though, who already commute on buses and trains get their laptops out and read/play on them in public so there are obviously a lot of people who are less chicken than you and me!
I wonder about the eyesight thing too…. but then there are very few minutes in my waking day when I'm NOT looking at a screen, anyway! 🙂
Yeah, that's where the Kindle did it better.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I own the nook. Naturally, I was of the same mindset Peter here is, but that was until I saw the 'nook.' I will never buy an iPad.
#1. It's a screen like a computer. The 'nook' uses a special kind of technology to make the screen look like real ink, and it really does. There is no light in the screen, so it doesn't glare.
#2. The iPad is an oversized iPod or iPhone. It cannot multitask. Dumb move, Apple.
#3. Books are cheap on 'nook' and a lot of them hand the 'lend' capability.
#4. The nook uses AT & T towers and does not require a monthly plan, but then again, it can't browse the internet.
You can tell I like my nook a lot, can't you? Those are my opinions.
Oh, and I'm with you on the tub, beach, pool thing. I don't know how my nook and I are going to move through the summer months together. 🙂 Cheers!
The iPad is making all the headlines at the moment, which is why I used it's name so prevalently, however, I do agree with you that there are other devices out there which are maybe more alluring and practical for avid book readers.
I just don't see at this time how technology that's so expensive can be expected to take the place of books in places where it could get damaged.
Prices need to come down a LOT. I've been watching the futuristic TV show 'Caprica' and on that they have some electronic paper that is disposable and yet is internet connected and can display dynamic or downloaded content. Something like that, if it were cheap enough would be awesome – and would convince me to move away from reading printed books!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Marty!
I can't afford an iPad so it's still books for me! Oh, and also you can check out books at the library. Can you do that with any of the other devices?
Great thoughts here Peter! I am totally with you on this one. 🙂
The expense is definitely the problem for me too. As it is, I buy mostly second hand books or read stuff online. Though I read a ton of material, I didn't spend more than 50 bucks on any of it through last year… and I read about 50 books, not including everything else I read.
But… I think it'll get realist much sooner than you've led on here. iPhones are everywhere… literally everywhere including the beach, bathtub, and so on. I don't think it'll be much longer before we start seeing the other reading devices all over the place too. I know I already take my laptop places I'd never dreamed to taking it ever a few years ago. I think it's a comfort thing. Once I have one around, even if it is worth a couple hundred dollars and I can't afford to lose it, I'll start taking it everywhere.
As you said, though, this is one of these things that'll be interesting to look back on in a year or two and see how wrong or right we were… or perhaps it won't be interesting at all because we'll have moved on to bigger and better things. :>)
-Marshall Jones Jr.