Why Apple iPad users will read more, and faster

Apple Online Store“The more we learn about the Apple iPad, the more excited everyone seems to be about some of its flashier talents: killer accessories, brilliant games and the like,” Chris Dannen writes for BNET. “But what’s most disruptive about the iPad and its competitors is that they will goad us into reading more.”

“When it happens, this uptick in reading will be about as salient a behavioral change as we’ve ever ascribed to a technological device — especially if you remember back to the 1980s and 1990s, when common knowledge held the opposite: that we were all quite slowly becoming soporific, TV-guzzling stooges,” Dannen writes. “And it will happen because, for the first time in 600 years, reading will have finally gotten easier.”

Here is why e-book readers will increase reading:
• Tons of choices
• Beauty
• Faster and more fluid
• More comprehensive
• No spam
• They read to you

Dannon writes, “Reading hasn’t kept pace with the improvements of our other human pastimes: listening (to music), talking (by phone) and watching (movies and TV). Unlike with other other media, books have hardly changed. It’s as if they’re mired in roughly the same time period as the daguerrotype, the record, and the telegraph. Paper books aren’t searchable, can’t be easily excerpted, don’t have links to footnotes and can’t backup your notes. They can can show pictures, but not video; they can be released yearly, but can’t be updated every 24 hours. (This isn’t to say I dislike paper books — it’s simply that not every book needs to exist in print.)”

“There are still obstacles, of course: e-book pricing could still end up over-inflated, and e-magazine prices will need to reach approximate parity with their paper counterparts, despite more production cost — but at least we have a good array of devices emerging, and the comfort of knowing that in 20 years, we may be more literate than ever,” Dannon writes.

Read more in the full article here.

28 Comments

  1. “…e-magazine prices will need to reach approximate parity with their paper counterparts, despite more production cost..”

    I could see increased costs if the emags content is enhanced with videos and expanded content using hyperlinks. But I wouldn’t think that it would cost much to export an electronic magazine layout in ebook format. Plus, they would save printing and mailing costs. In addition, supply inherently equals demand in the ebook world as long as your servers and the internet connections are up to the task. You can add readership at basically no additional cost.

  2. I like this. We all know Apple users have been more educated. At least the stats indicate it.

    Now Apple will be working the magic on a broader range of people and maybe changing millions to the Mac.

    Ballmer should just buy a chair factory and get some excercise so he can be lean for a new job.

  3. It’s quite simple maybe production cost could be slightly higher but you can’t lend someone a ebook or magazine so if you want there content you will have to pay for it. So volume should mire than compensate the extra proction costs

  4. Yay for reading. It is fantastic to think that millions of people will be able to easily increase their intake of information.
    iPads in schools is very exciting.

    Another great tool and one I will continue to use when I start using the iPad is the simple rss reader.

    Rss is one of the greatest ideas for massively increasing and maintaining information intake.

    It is my #1 Internet activity and has been for years.
    I do however find apple lacking in the rss reader dept with their offerings. Would really love to see them do an overhaul on this.

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