In the digital age, e-books are more accessible and portable than paper books, but due to some technical issues and lack of content, they have not yet become popular. However, once these issues are resolved, e-books have the potential to surpass paper books and even coexist with them to expand the book market.
We live in a digital age where we get a lot of information from our PCs and smartphones on a daily basis. This is due to the pervasiveness of digital media and the ample supply of digital content delivered through these mediums. People have gotten used to getting news faster through the internet than newspapers, or watching a variety of content on YouTube rather than watching TV broadcasts. Despite this natural transition from analog to digital media, it’s not uncommon to see people on the subway during university exams intently reading a book or taking notes. Why are they carrying heavy books instead of using their smartphones to do everything as usual? It’s probably because the medium of “books” hasn’t fully transitioned to digital yet. Even though electronic books (ebooks) have been around for decades, they still haven’t surpassed the status of “paper books” and lack public recognition. This is likely due to the fact that, despite their great advantages, ebooks still have several problems that have yet to be solved. In this article, we’ll discuss how ebooks have evolved to where they are today, what problems they still have, and where they’ll be once they’re solved.
Before we take a brief look at the history of ebooks, let’s take a look at the history of paper books. If we consider the term “paper book” to mean any book written on an analog medium, its history can be traced back to the invention of paper by Chayun, and even further back to the days of writing on silk or bamboo. E-books have also been around since the beginning of the digital age. The Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM and various fantasy novels serialized over PC communications were already forms of e-books. We just didn’t call them ebooks. Various devices for reading e-books have also appeared at various times, but most of us probably remember PDAs and e-dictionaries.
It wasn’t until the introduction of the Amazon Kindle that e-books suddenly came into the spotlight. Amazon.com, an internet retailer that started as an online bookstore and now dominates the US retail market, launched the Amazon Kindle, an ‘e-ink’ type e-book device, and actively sold e-book contents. The use of e-ink instead of LCD displays has reduced eye strain and greatly improved the readability of e-books. However, there was a disadvantage that it was not portable without a dedicated device, but this was also solved to some extent with the spread of smartphones and tablets, leading to the current situation. In line with these changes, e-books and dedicated devices are being sold in the Korean market, mainly by online bookstores, but the market size is not yet large.
As you can see from the above, there are many different implementations of e-books, and they have different characteristics. However, many people experience only some of the characteristics of some of these implementations and are quick to attribute them to the shortcomings of e-books themselves, which is why they have not been widely adopted. To clear up these misconceptions, let’s take a look at some of the most commonly cited drawbacks, how they’re implemented, and how they can be fixed.
The first problem is the lack of portability without a dedicated device. Even if e-books are cheaper than paper books, the need to purchase a dedicated device can be a barrier to entry. However, this was only a problem when dedicated devices were the only way to go. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, this is a problem that can be solved by simply installing a dedicated application.
The second problem is that due to the nature of displays, they are more prone to eye strain than paper books, making them vulnerable to prolonged reading. Regular displays emit light continuously through light-emitting elements and have a lower resolution compared to paper books, causing glare and fatigue. However, this problem can be solved by using e-ink. E-Link works by applying an electric charge to black and white particles to change their arrangement, so that light is reflected as if printed on paper. This has the advantage of being glare-free, reducing eye strain, and consuming power only when switching screens. However, it is difficult to express a wide range of colors and the screen switching speed is slow, so it is mainly used on devices dedicated to e-books. Smartphones can’t use e-ink, but as display resolutions continue to improve, text is becoming sharper and less straining on the eyes.
The third problem is that e-book content is scarce, especially in Korea. Usually, e-book content providers apply DRM to restrict reading on their own e-book devices, and the Amazon Kindle, which is a representative of e-book devices, is not available in Korea. However, e-book devices in Korea have gradually improved to the point where they can replace the Kindle to some extent, and the increasing use of smartphones and tablet PCs is gradually solving this problem. In addition, it is now possible to directly convert paper books into e-books using scanners, and there are many companies that specialize in this service, making it easier to solve the problem of lack of content or DRM.
The disadvantages of e-books compared to paper books are gradually being solved by applying different methods or improving existing methods. However, they have not yet been solved to a sufficient level, which is why they are not widely distributed, and I think they will explode once they reach a certain level. This is due to the biggest advantage of e-books compared to paper books: accessibility. The accessibility of e-books has the same effect as the explosion of paper books with the invention of letterpress printing. While the invention of letterpress made it possible to mass-produce paper books, making them more accessible to everyone, it still takes time for paper books to be produced and delivered to consumers. This time is even longer if you buy books from abroad that are not available in Korea. But with the advent of ebooks, these time and space constraints have been completely eliminated. A book that would take 10 days to arrive in paper form can be downloaded in a matter of minutes with an e-book.
This isn’t the only advantage of e-books. Dedicated e-reader devices are smaller and lighter than a single paperback book, and they’re portable enough to store hundreds of books. You don’t even need a second device to read them, as long as you have a smartphone or tablet. These advantages don’t just apply to transportation, but also to storage. If you keep buying and collecting paper books, you’ll eventually run out of space on your bookshelves, but that’s not the case with e-books. Even if you have a large collection of e-books and can’t fit them all on a dedicated device, you can keep them on your PC. If you lose an e-book file, you can still get it back as long as you have your purchase history. Additionally, while paper books can deteriorate or become unreadable over time due to storage conditions, this doesn’t happen with ebooks. Suppliers also don’t need large production facilities or warehouses.
While the advantages of e-books are great, there are still some issues that have prevented their explosive growth. However, some of these problems are being solved by technological advances and others by market growth. When the problems are sufficiently solved, e-books could surpass the current position of paper books. However, don’t assume that e-books will completely disappear even as they become more popular. It’s not about the tactile, sentimental value of paper books. The accessibility of e-books will not simply displace paper books, but will have the effect of increasing the size of the book market itself, just as the invention of letterpress printing did.
