Electronic reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Daily Edition have been gaining popularity, but many students wonder if they can beat the tactile nostalgia of old-fashioned books.
Sarah Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research, told the Wall Street Journal that the number of e-readers sold in the U.S. will top three million by the end of 2009, and will grow to over 13 million by the end of 2013.
‘It makes me think of iPods when they first came out,’ psychology major Nonye Nwosu said. ‘It was so big, and then they came out with the Zune, and it was different. (The) iPod is still top of the market, but people are buying the Zune and other brands. The Sony (Reader) Touch and (Reader) Pocket should be able to compete with Kindle, especially since it is cheaper.’
Sony’s Reader Touch Edition is priced at $299, and the Reader Pocket Edition costs $199, making it the cheapest of its kind so far.’ The price is appealing to some students when compared to Amazon’s Kindle 2 ($300) and Kindle DX ($450). The Sony brand name doesn’t hurt either.
‘I would buy the Touch,’ Nwosu said. ‘And besides, it’s one of those fancy gizmos you can touch. I would buy (it) since it is cheaper.’ It doesn’t make sense to me if they are doing the same job to spend $300 or $500 when you can get it for $200 or $300. Plus, Sony is very trustworthy.’
While Amazon’s most noteworthy advantage over Sony is the Wi-Fi connection, music education major Charnele Pendarvis doesn’t think it will be a problem.
‘Downloading is pretty popular nowadays anyways, so I don’t think it will be an issue if people won’t be able to download a book on the spot,’ Pendarvis said.
Plus, Pendarvis said Sony’s sleeker design is a significant advantage.
However, Amazon and Sony’s dreams of making e-books the new iPod will have to wait. E-books may be catching on, but the process will be slow, as students may find them to be costly and too disadvantageous.
‘If you’re uploading these books, it’s not free; you’re buying them,’ Nwosu said. ‘Sometimes you want something tangible, being able to highlight or clip things from newspapers, and you can’t do that with these devices.’
Pendarvis concurs, as her experience with electronic textbooks has led to some difficulties. ‘Textbooks, I can kind of see as being ‘hellip; different (from personal reading.) I had an electronic textbook, and it was easy, but I wish I had the book in front of me.’
