As Kindle 2 Starts Shipping, E-Reading Questions Abound

The Kindle certainly isn't the only e-reading device out there, and to talk e-reading devices alone is to ignore an increasing number of e-reading applications from the likes of Google, Microsoft and others that in effect turn smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and other mobile devices into e-readers.

But as Kindle begins to ship and those consumers who plunked down their $359 anticipate its arrival with bated breath, questions remain about the viability of the e-book business and exactly whose model, whether it's Sony's plug-in eReader, Amazon's Kindle and download store or Google's e-reading application, will continue to push e-books into the mainstream.

For e-reading observers such as Eric Ginsberg, vice president of marketing for BookSwim, the answer is a little more complicated than whose device does what best.

BookSwim, an online book-rental library that views itself more or less as Netflix for book rental, offers unlimited book-rental plans starting at $9.95. It's effectively an online library membership where consumers request physical books online -- paperbacks, hardcovers, even textbooks -- and can hold onto them without late fees.

Ginsberg suggested online library offerings like BookSwim are going to be the best resource for book lovers as traditional brick-and-mortar book retailers continue to lose market share and e-reading devices begin to grab mainstream popularity.

BookSwim isn't yet offering an e-book option, but Ginsberg likens the company's path toward its own e-book offerings to Netflix's move from pushing physical DVDs to beaming content digitally into Netflix-equipped TVs and personal computers.

"The biggest technology for that is still being developed -- the hardware and the software aren't quite there yet -- so we do have time," Ginsberg said. "Netflix didn't sit down in 2000 and say, 'How long till we can rent people movies over the Internet straight into their computers?' "

To Ginsberg, buying a Kindle 2 is "iffy." He suggested a lot of the improvements to the new Kindle seem an extension of the Moore's Law concept, more or less the increasing efficiency and better capabilities seen in improved versions of previous devices.

And one big difference -- Kindle 2's Read To Me function, which allows a user to hear content from an e-book read to him or her by an electronic voice on the Kindle -- is in the legal crosshairs of the Author's Guild for a supposed violation of authors' rights to audiobooks.

"I'm going to sink $360 into a device that might get a cease and desist order from a judge?" he asked. "I don't know if I'm putting money into something that iffy."

But Ginsberg suggested the biggest problem with Kindle and devices like it is the supposed cost savings. He argued that the $360-or-so spent on a Kindle, combined with the $240 spent for 24 books (at the average Amazon price of $10 for e-book downloads) means you've already spent $600, where buying those 24 books at Barnes & Noble or Borders would cost you half that.

"Or," Ginsberg added, "you can get them for free at the library."

What's the future of e-reading, and the retail convergence of books and electronics? Send us some thoughts at [email protected].