The Upcoming Fame and Glory of E-Books

Books used to be written down before printers and publishing companies were invented back in 1436 when Johannes Gutenberg created the concept of movable type. (Bellis, M. 2010) From scrolls to codex's, the revolution of books in general has advanced into a new form of technology; E-books. In the transcript for Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "E-books popularity on the rise", it mainly talks about the advancement of technology and how the internet has influenced all the industries available today in one way or another. Steve Jobs and Mark Pesce both agree that the progress of E-books have been overwhelming and used in every corner of the world with Mark mentioning that he suspects in 10 years time, 50 percent of all book sales in major markets will comprise of E-books. This is supported by Steve who stated that with E-books and the launch of Apple's new iPad, you just have to tap on it and buy this book, and the book downloads right onto my bookshelf. Therefore, it is apparent that with the advancement of technology through E-books as well as the new gadgets introduced, the public will turn they're attention towards this form of new media and opt to go with technology.

Gardiner, Eileen, and Musto R. G. (2010), defined the E-book as "an electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a text- and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices." E-books have created a big impression towards the public as to how easy and beneficial purchasing E-books can be. This is supported by Christopher H. (2009) as he stated that "Depending on the device, an e-book may be readable in low light or even total darkness. Many newer readers have the ability to display motion, enlarge or change fonts." Other than that, the E-book does not only benefit the user but also seen as eco-friendly as Siegel, L. (2009) agrees that "the production of e-books does not consume paper, ink, etc. Printed books use 3 times more raw materials and 78 times more water to produce albeit they do not require a machine for use. From this, we can see why E-books are rising in the market and paperback is no longer a monopoly in the market.

However, every good thing also has its disadvantages. In our case here for the E-book, the advancement in technology could also be a drawback for consumers as referred by freewritingadvice.com to as "E-book formats and file types continue to develop and change through time through advances and developments in technology or the introduction of new proprietary formats. While printed books remain readable for many years, E-books may need to be copied or converted to a new carrier or file type over time. PDF and epub are growing standards, but are not universal. The lack of a single universal standard could significantly affect the longevity of some works and their availability or readability in the future as a result of the format(s) used at the time of production." 

Hence, we can clearly see that the advancement in technology has influenced the public's options in a great manner. Nevertheless it's still up to preference and likeness of the product which could be a factor. No matter what, technology will progress and newer gadgets and softwares will be introduced. However, we should remember that every new product will have a positive and negative side to it.

Reference

Bellis, M. 2010, "Johannes Guttenberg and the Printing Press", [Online] .About.com, viewed 13 November 2010, (http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Gutenberg.htm).

Gardiner, Eileen, and Musto R. G. 2010, "The Electronic Book", in Suarez, M. F. & Woudhuysen, H. R.'s "The Oxford Companion to the Book", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 164.

Christopher H. (2009), "The Truth About Ebooks." School Library Journal 55, no. 6 (2009): 18. Wilson Select Plus. [Online Database]

Siegel, L. (2009), "Should we switch to reading books online?", The Observer Magazine, 30th August 2009.

FreeWritingAdvice 2010, "Advantages and Disadvantages of E-book Publishing", [Online] FreeWritingAdvice.com, viewed 13 November 2010, (http://www.freewritingadvice.com/index_files/ebookprocon.htm)