The A4 ebook reader has come...

For some of us, this was a sort of Graal and finally it has come: the A4 ebook reader is with us (and probably there to stay). Although I have not had a chance to try Irex's Digital Reader Series (they'll have to figure out a better name), I am not so interested in how well it works than what uses it will eventually be put to. Of course, I hope it works well, but the point is if this particular product doesn't then no doubt the next one will, and so on. There is enough of a market for these things that someone will jump in to propose one that actually does all the things it's supposed to do well. The e-ink revolution is on the way, and there is no saying where it will stop.
The most important thing that the emergence of the DRS shows is that the technology is now sufficiently ripe that it is fully workable. So far, the market envisaged for ebook readers was mostly pocket editions and the mass market. It seems kindle has done relatively well, and it (and other readers like it) may still resurrect books as a product of mass appeal (which surely is a good thing). But it did strike me that the drive to create these small ebook readers was missing what is arguably the most promising market of all, namely the academic market. We are, after all, the most compulsive print-addicted knowledge workers out there, and until recently, most of us were in a bit of a bind.
On the one hand, the ever increasing availability of databases means that most of us get most of our information most of the time from electronic databases. We are confronted with a veritable deluge of Pdfs. Of course, a lot of it may be junk which is easily discarded, but then our job is to actually go through at least some of these things (not simply store them or endlessley enjoy the feeling of their accessibility at our fingertips), and ideally there are quite a few that we would like to read (given the time). At this stage, two options open up. Option 1: read on the screen. One does not have to be an ophtalmologist to realize that this is particularly bad for your eyes. In fact, the incessant scrawling up and down documents is particularly unpleasant and unnnatural (compared to moving a book in the same way or reading up and down a book). Not to mention that one is, essentially, staring at a source of light most of the day, often in semi-darkness. And there is plenty of evidence around that suggests that the experience of reading on the screen is intellectually very different (I'll let you guess).
So option 2: print it. But printing definitely has its own drawbacks. Apart from the cost (but we have budgets to cover that, I suppose) the main problem, plainly, has become an ecological one. I am not sure what the average number of pages is for articles, but it can easily reach a few dozen pages. That is a lot of paper over a year, and the matter is made worse by the fact that quite often we will only read a fraction of it, having for example decided an article was not that interesting in the end (or feeling like most the work is done once we have printed it).
So we are stuck... Unless something like the A4 ebook reader exists, which is precisely why I suspect this will have a revolutionary impact. Until now, existing ebook readers could theoretically display pdfs, but reducing an A4 to a smaller format is no treat for the eyes, and sort of defeats the purpose. Irex's new product (and more to follow), has the following advantages (that are shared by many if not most readers but which are worth reexploring in this new A4 era):

1/ No printing! (something which they helpfully emphasize in their advertising)
2/ Book like reading experience, i.e.: no light emission, pages flipped rather than scrowling.
3/ Amazing carryability. Because the battery life is so long, and because ebooks can be read anywhere (that is, including under the sun), you can essentially take your library around with you.
4/ Some interactivity. One of the versions of the ereader actually allows you to take notes in the book. Finally indulge your scribbling fantasies on scanned versions of ancient originals!

So all you need to do, in essence, is download articles and some books, and get going... Of course, I suspect there will be glitches and frustration on the way, and of course... the stuff still has to be read. But with a bit of luck, the IDR and others like it could allow us to rediscover some of the pleasure of reading, by combining the old (of a carriable artefact that is agreeable to use) and the new (the fact that most of the content has now been digitalized). This may be one of ebooks' paradoxes: that they use a digital technology to emulate a century old technology, possibly helping us move away from some other digital technologies (e.g.: the computer) in the process.

But what of the incomparable pleasure of old musty books, you may ask? Well, let's be realistic, how many of our students still read those, as opposed to their scanned and fully searchable versions on google books? And how many of us would be able to take those on long-haul flights or beach holidays anyhow? In fact, ebooks maybe the best thing that has happened to pbooks in a long time, first because it makes a lot of them accessible to a lot of people (the classic advantage of digitalization), including rare editions; second, because I foresee that some of the money saved on buying paper versions of "standard" books thanks to their cheaper electronic alternatives can be reinvested in protecting, buying and enjoying the books that really have sentimental value as artefacts. Personally, I'd much rather spend my book budget on art and limited editions than on the standard texts that are only of value to me for their content.

I suspect once it catches on, the technology could make adepts very, very rapidly among our student body. One might think that the biggest obstacle at present was the cost of ebook readers which, it must be admitted, will be a steep one for would be early adopters (around 750 $ at present). But consider that the average student already dishes out hundreds of dollars in course materials a year, probably enough in a term to buy the top of the scale Irex ereader. The material itself can easily be made available as a big Pdf, and what ends up costing students a lot is the reproduction. Consider, then, that the beauty of the ereader is that it is extremely lightweight, compared to having to carry, say, 3 coursepacks for the day. The cost is obviously relative to what the ebook allows you to save.

All in all, I predict that within five years ebooks will have taken at least North American campuses by storm. Students will be among the first to invest. In view of this, it is surprising that Irex is not doing more to woe faculties, and that the advertising seems to focus mostly on the business crowd. I trust they must have done their marketing, but frankly I am not sure business types (no offence meant) read quite as much or quite as sytematically as students and academics. And I can't imagine many of those frequent flyers adding an ebook to their laptop.