Brian Prentice

The top shelf of the closet in my home office can be affectionately described as my digital device graveyard. It serves a dual purpose. First, it allows me to avoid the realization that I probably wasted my money buying these things in the first place as I can pretend that an emerging market for vintage computing devices will allow me to recoup my costs (anyone interested in a 1999 Palm V with matching Dooney & Burke leather protection case). Second, I can open my closet to remind myself of the fallibility of “must have” digital devices every time a new one hits the market.

With all the eReader discussion going on I’ve just gone back to my closet for a look.

Now, I don’t want to come across as a Luddite but I really can’t see these things being anything more than a niche solution unless they provide a meaningful cost or experience advantage over the current state of the art – the pBook. And that is an advantage as defined by your average human being – someone like Grandma, your neighbourhood 4×4 driving soccer mom, or Joe the Plumber. The philosophical waxing of the world’s device whores doesn’t count. We already know you’ll be shoving a Kindle in the same bag you use to carry your laptop, iPhone, and Flip Video camera. You have a reputation to maintain – we understand that.

So, what about the experience? Well, call me a romantic but I’m having a hard time with the idea of snuggling up in bed with a plastic-cased screen. I have been known to nod off mid-sentence dropping my book to the ground – a harmless activity with a paperback. A potential warranty claim with an eReader. I’m also definitely not keen on the idea of a flight attendant telling me to turn off my book because we’ve started our descent.

But I’ll forgive those foibles, as I think most people will, so long as an eReader provides a simple and elegant reading experience.

Alas, given the track record of the IT industry I’m quite confident in predicting that any semblance of elegance will disappear under an onslaught of superfluous features. Heck, it’s already started – ASUS is planning a “high end” reader with inbuilt 3G, a web browser and expandable storage. Poor old Grandma – she’ll need to log a support inquiry to figure out how to swap between her copy of Harlequin’s latest page turner, “The Spaniard’s Defiant Virgin” and “Conquering Arthritis: What Doctors Don’t Tell You Because They Don’t Know.”

By the way, from a design perspective, can someone explain to me why we need a dual screen eReader? Surely the two-page paradigm resulting from a physical binding process has been rendered obsolete.

So, that gets us to cost. After a quick cost comparison on Amazon it’s clear that Kindle eBooks are less expensive than their paperback equivalents (when they’re available). Kindle eBooks go for about $10 while paperbacks are $16. OK, good so far.

But after dividing the number of paperbacks sold per year by the population of the US I discovered that the average person buys about 8-9 books a year. After pocketing their $54 savings per year it will only take 5.5 years to pay off the cost of their Kindle. That is assuming the device lasts that long – that it isn’t superceded or ends up on the top shelf of someone’s closet.

And if don’t live in the US you’ll probably have to contend with region codes. As it stands today I can place an order for a good old fashion pBook on Amazon and have it shipped to Australia where I live. As long as I buy a couple of books I save a lot of money over what I’d pay in a book store here – even with shipping costs. But Kindle Books are only available in the US due to “other restrictions.”. So I’m also predicting that when they are finally made available globally they have the same region code set up which results in non-US residents paying big premiums on things like movies and video games. That cost equations starts looking much worse.

So sorry, but I think I’ll avoid adding anything new to the top shelf of my closet for the time being.

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