The wonders of E-Book....& what audience expect from it?

Source: www.masternewmedia.org

Nowadays every company wants to try out something different. For instance, Apple has launched iPad which does mostly everything. Not only that even the makers of e-book are venturing their business into a different angle. An example would be The Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook Color was created to run on Google’s Android platform whereas Amazon had recently launched its own application store for Android devices.

In October 2003, there was no such thing called as ‘e-book’ reading devices. Most people were using their PDA to gain access to their digital books.  Devices such as Toshiba e805 was the perfect device to be used as it had built-in Wi-Fi and VGA color touchscreen. The device runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003 operating system that enables users to browse the Web and install applications. In fall 2007, Kindle arrived and made standalone e-book reader to go mainstream. Since then, various standalone e-link readers went on a mission in creating a whole new niche but then the trend came to be ‘multipurpose’ again since the launch of Apple’s iPad.

Source: www.toputop.com

But then there is still space for e-book readers as there are device that only shows e-book content and nothing else. The reason is because some people prefer e-link as it does not strain the eyes much and uses power only while turning the page.  Looking at the increasing rate of the current tablet market, it shows that people are expecting more from mobile devices, a device that can surf the Web, contains various applications and even became a portable television and movie theater not forgetting, providing a stable e-book experience.

In my opinion, readers do expect more from an e-book instead of just showing book contents.  As the vast emerging of technology it is important for e-book makers to keep up with the current pace. Now, ‘the challenge is to understand the new digital target market and integrate it into your established audience.’ (Johnson, 2010) Although the latest technology does play a part in audience expectations, the latest generation, which is we, prefer it to be related to our reading experience. As what been stated by Jon 2010, ‘people in this group are likely to wonder what purpose an app serves for them and remain skeptical of whether it can add anything worthwhile to their reading experience.’  Audiences even look at presentation nowadays. ‘Audiences are becoming privy to the wave of poor presentations and are no longer accepting of the drab, ineffective presentations that are too often used.’ (Jon, 2010) Thus from here it is evident that audience would like to see a change instead the same thing.


In the 21^st century audience are filled with knowledge, which means they know what they like, what should be included, how it should work and how it should feel (Johnson 2010). Hence they are not ignorant when comes to accessing the applications, as they know the pros and cons.  Including images in e-book attracts reader’s attention. As Walsh (2006, p.30) states, interaction between readers and text is different because of the use of images and the ways images interact with words.

Mobile device such as Ipad is selling like ‘hot cakes’ especially among the younger generations.This is because it is a multipurpose device than has the ability to surf the Web, download various applications and also an e-book device. Walsh (2006 pp. 30-31) has stated, “With this text the technological differences (i.e screen, windows, frames, hyperlinks, navigation bars, menu buttons, use of cursor, mouse) are designed to assist the reader’s learning, to attract and to maintain interest.” This allows readers to gained a lot as they have access to the Web and other applications.

Lastly anything included in e-book has to be different but at the same time it has to be understood by the audience. As what stated by Walsh 2006, whether ‘reading’ words or images or both, in a novel, non-fiction text, a media text, a picture book, an information text or a digital text we need to be able to understand the message to make meaning. Thus it is vital for audience to understand of any features that is included in an e-book device.

Source: www.winarco.com

Reference

• Walsh, M. 2006, The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and literacy, vol. 29, no, 1, pp. 24-37.
• Jon 2010, Audience Expectations in the New Age of Presentations, viewed 12 June 2011,<http://www.presentationadvisors.com/audience-expectations-in-the-new-age-of-presentations>
• Johnson, D. 2010, Apps and eBooks: Readers Have Great Expectations, But How Do You Deliver?, viewed 12 June 2011, <http://publishingperspectives.com/2010/09/apps-and-ebooks-readers-have-great-expectations-but-how-do-you-deliver/>
• Tofel, K. 2011, How E-Books Are Coming Full Circle, Thanks to Tablets, viewed 12 June 2011, <http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2011/tc20110325_523054.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5>

 Maheswari Ganga Gangaya

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