History of eBooks and Digitalised Publications
While eBook Readers have only just become widely marketed in the last couple of years, the first ever eBooks were actually developed in the early 1970s as part of Project Gutenberg. The first prototypes for portable eBook reading were the Dynabook and the PARC (portable personal computers capable of displaying eBooks for reading).
From the 1970s – 1990s there were lots of eBooks being uploaded by public libraries and downloaded by individuals, however most of these were of a scholarly or technical hardware nature. At the same time, authors that failed to get their books published by publishers would upload their books online for free.
Even when US libraries began launching eBook services over the internet (powered by Adobe PDF and various other formats), these could not be downloaded and were non-fiction only.
It wasn’t until 1998 – 2003 that public US libraries began launching online eBook stores that included books that were both non-fictional and fictional in nature. Online websites allowed public libraries to sell and loan content to customers for the first time as eBooks were downloaded to users computers. The number of eBook distributors and marketers increased massively from 2003 – 2010 when 66% of US public libraries were offering their books in downloadable eBook format.
2009 and the Rise of the First eBook Reader: the Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle was the first eReader to be publicly launched and marketed heavily in the mass consumer markets in 2009. The Kindle became a huge success and quickly dominated the eReader market in the US. The original Kindle provided a screen size of roughly 6” and offered several weeks of battery life. Users could download eBooks, newspapers and read magazines on their Kindle at an affordable price of just £100.
Other eBook Readers such as the Sony eReader and the Barnes and Noble Nook also grasped a stronghold on the market. In 2010, Apple announced the launch of their new multi-functional device, the iPad. The executives of Apple Inc successfully agreed distribution rights to 5 of the 6 largest publishing houses in the US to distribute and sell their books through the iPad (this successful business strategy was very similar to the Apple iTunes Library’s agreement to distribute music singles and albums from the major music networks just a few years earlier).
Today the current market for the eReader is still dominated by a few names including the Kindle, Sony and iPad. Amazon.co.uk recently announced that eBook sales surpassed book sales on their website, with 150 eBooks sold for every 100 books. The American Publishing Association estimates that the eBook market makes up almost 9% of total sales in 2010, up from 3% the previous year.
As eBooks, digitalised formats of newspapers, publications and magazines become more and more available in 2011 and onwards, the eBook market could eventually replace the traditional book printing press market which has been prevalent over the last 300 years.
