Things are starting to get a little bit more interesting in the ebook reader market of late. Amazon’s Kindle reader has been leading the market for quite some time now. Barnes and Noble have recently upgraded their Nook reader, which now has a touch control e-ink technology display. The Nook has been in a distant second place to the Kindle for some time now – but the new upgrade could help Barnes and Noble to close the gap and may even things up somewhat in the Kindle vs Nook contest.
Whether a touch screen is a huge advantage for ebook readers or not is open to debate – but it is certainly what people are used to seeing on their personal electronic devices these days. The use of touch screen controls means that the QWERTY style keypad is redundant, which allows the reader to be made physically smaller and lighter. That is clearly a feature which a lot of potential customers will be greatly appreciative of.
In a further interesting development, the iRiver Story HD reader has been launched. It’s a little surprising that iRiver have opted to go with a QWERTY keypad rather than using touch screen controls. Perhaps it’s related to the fact that it features the first XGA e-ink display on the market.
It has a resolution of 1024 x 768, compared to the 800 x 600 resolution of the Kindle and the Nook. That may provide a better reading experience as it equates to an extra 63% on the pixel count. It may also allow ebook publishers to use different formatting options. Whether or not that will be considered to be a major selling point by customers remains to be seen.
However, the fact that the Story HD is the result of a collaboration between Google and iRiver will almost certainly be seen as a selling point by many. It’s the first ebook reader to be integrated with Google’s eBookstore. Users will be able to choose their ebooks from Google and then download them straight to their reader by Wi-Fi.
Considering the success of both the Nook and the Kindle, it does appear to be the case that people prefer to buy their readers from companies which have a strong link with books. The Google eBookstore provides that link for the Story HD. It’s a partnership which could boost reader sales and increase the interest in the Google eBookstore at the same time.
The release of the Kindle 4, most likely before the end of this year, will shake things up again no doubt. For the moment however, both Barnes and Noble and iRiver will make hay while the sun shines. It appears as if the ebook reader market isn’t prepared to become stable just yet.
