Business Week writes in their article, Curling Up With a Good E-Book, about the next generation Libre from Sony and I find it very tantalizing. I was, and deep in my heart still am, a huge fan of the Franklin eBookman which by all rights was way ahead of its time, just like the Rocket eBook, but was done in by a perfect storm of manufacturing woes, the collapse of the technology market, and less than stellar marketing and product placement–I still own two eBookmans, a 911 and 901, which I really ought to drag out, dust off and show some love to.
The trouble with eBooks is largely a matter of form factor; the concept of carrying some 200 novels and magazines in one’s pocket is a great but holding a small screen to read is a cold and often uncomfortable proposition. Reading for long periods of time still seems to be best done with paper as the print is easier on the eyes and the weight of most books is comfortable on both the hands and shoulders. Bear in mind that my observations are unscientific and personal in nature, I am only comparing my experience reading on paper versus my eBookman, which I spent a year reading exclusively on.
It is possible that Sony does have an iPod like device to storm the ebook market with though given Sony’s recent track record with hardware and consumer usability (Network Walkman with regards to MP3s and the original Libre with the brutal 60-Days-To-Read-It-Before-I-Delete-It DRM scheme) I’m going to remain neutral. Judging by the picture on the right of the original Libre it looks as if they have approximately the right form factor in that the screen is large and appears to be bright and the image clear and well defined. The keyboard at the bottom, though, appears to be bolted on and could conflict with comfortably operating the unit. Engadget has another picture of the unit, likely the US version, and it looks as if they have shrunk the screen slightly but have kept the keyboard.
Moving beyond the form factor, Sony is looking to support PDF natively as well as their own proprietary format. Supporting PDF is what could make this unit worthwhile to myself since I have an extensive bookshelf over at Fictionwise that has been languishing since I moved back to Treeware. If the Libre supports user provided content, such as books from Fictionwise or the latest issue of Tux than I will be clamoring to get myself one of these devices. Additional bonus is that Sony will be using SD cards rather than their own line of memory sticks which means that I should be able to load content to my device without needing some janky application that only works on Windows to hold my hand.
All in all, I am excited for the new Libre but that excitement is tempered by the realities that ebooks and dedicated readers have faced in the past. Is the market now ready to support them? I suppose we’ll see when the Libre hits the streets sometime next year.
