The document discusses the history and current state of ebooks and ebook readers. It provides a timeline of important developments in ebooks dating back to 1971, with many major companies and products launching between 2005-2010. The document also outlines different ebook formats, the support of formats on major ebook readers, differences in DRM and other features among devices. It shares some examples of universities experimenting with ebook readers in education but students still prefer printed books for note-taking and other learning benefits.

1. Books are so last century
Scott McNulty
Monday, May 24, 2010

2. Why am I here?
• eReader junkie
• Wrote a book sold only in
electronic form
• Former Wharton Computing
Employee
• Will present for food
Monday, May 24, 2010

3. A Brief eBook Timeline
Monday, May 24, 2010

4. Gutenberg Project 1971
Monday, May 24, 2010

5. Rocket eBook/
SoftBook 1998
Monday, May 24, 2010

6. Amazon buys
Mobipocket 2005
Monday, May 24, 2010

7. Sony Reader 2006
Monday, May 24, 2010

8. E-Ink
• Low power
• High contrast
• Reflective
Monday, May 24, 2010

9. Kindle 2007
Monday, May 24, 2010

10. Kindle 2007
Monday, May 24, 2010

11. The Oprah Effect 2008
Monday, May 24, 2010

12. Kindle 2 & DX 2009
Monday, May 24, 2010

13. nook 2009
Monday, May 24, 2010

14. More Sony Readers 2009
Monday, May 24, 2010

15. iPad 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010

16. Kobo 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010

17. AZW (based on mobi) ePub
Amazon Everyone Else
Monday, May 24, 2010

18. Format Support
Platform ePub PDF Mobi AMZ Text Doc
Kindle ✗ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔*
Sony ✔ ✔ ✗ ✗ ✔ ✔
iPad
(iBooks) ✔ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
nook ✔ ✔ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
Kobo ✔ ✔ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
Monday, May 24, 2010

19. ePub
• Uses XHTML, XML, and CSS to create file
• Supports DRM
• Open, standard format
Monday, May 24, 2010

20. DRM
Platform Amazon iTunes Adobe DRM
Kindle ✔ ✗ ✗
Sony ✗ ✗ ✔
iPad (iBooks) ✗ ✔ ✗
nook ✗ ✗ ✔
Kobo ✗ ✗ ✔
Monday, May 24, 2010

21. Annotation
Monday, May 24, 2010

22. Highlights
Monday, May 24, 2010

23. Highlights per book
Monday, May 24, 2010

24. Cushing Academy Library goes bookless
Monday, May 24, 2010

25. Student participants reduced the amount of paper
they used to print course readings by almost 50
percent. However, e-readers must be significantly
improved to have the same value in a teaching
environment as traditional paper texts,
participants said.
Princeton -
http://bit.ly/princekindle
Administration
Monday, May 24, 2010

26. “Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with
the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and
other marks representing the importance of certain passages —
not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas
come from and interaction with the material occurs,” he
explained. “All these things have been lost, and if not lost
they’re too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the
‘features’ have been rendered useless.”
Princeton - Students http://bit.ly/princestudent
Monday, May 24, 2010

27. Darden’s Kindle experiment is not
quite over but the verdict is
already in: Most Darden students
prefer not to use the electronic
reading devices in the B-school
classroom.
Darden http://bit.ly/dardenkindle
Monday, May 24, 2010

28. Find Me
• Twitter: @blankbaby
• Blog: http://
blog.blankbaby.com
• Google: Scott McNulty (I’m the
one that isn’t a church organist
and who doesn’t make nature
sound CDs).
• Email: smcnulty@gmail.com
Monday, May 24, 2010