The trouble with E-Readers

From GrayMatt(e)R:

Today I went to my local Barnes and Noble to take a look at the Android powered Nook.  I have done a bit of research on E-Readers, including the Nook, the Kindle, and others (like the Alex).  I’m drawn to E-Readers for the same reason I’m drawn to MP3 players: portability, convenience, and hopefully motivation to read more books.  After playing with the Nook, in store, I have some thoughts.

Pro’s:

• It’s the right size.  Small enough to carry with, but big enough to read from.
• The E-Ink screen that it (and the Kindle) uses is very easy to read from.
• I like the secondary screen for searching.
• Convenience.  Connecting over 3G or wifi and instantly having a new title is super convenient, and what I’m looking for.
• It’s arguably greener.  Manufacturing computer components isn’t the cleanest thing in the world, but neither is printing loads of books and shipping them across the country.

Con’s

• The single biggest con is what should be it’s biggest pro:  Content availability.  I was shocked that after searching for three titles (2 books and a periodical), I was able to find none of them on the Nook.  It turnes out the Kindle has similar issues.  I’m currently reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis - Not available (same deal on the Kindle).  How about the next book I plan to read: First, Break all the Rules?  Nope.  Fortune Magazine?  Nope.  If an E-Reader has to do one thing right, it has to make getting content easier, not harder.  I’m not going to spend $249.99 to find that I have less choice than I would with a hard-copy.  Period.
• Closed Market.  Like the Kindle and iPad/iPhone, the Marketplace for content is closed.  You’re married to Barnes and Noble’s partnerships for e-content.  While this is less of an issue on the Nook, which is able to read epub content, it is still an issue.  The market needs to be open for these to really shine.  Just as I can buy a book from Barnes and Noble, Borders or Amazon, I should be able to choose the same on an E-Reader.
• No Web.  If you’re going to connect these devices to the cloud, they need to have the ability to read news sources on the web.  I don’t want to hear “that’s not what it was designed to do”.  If that’s the case, you need to fire the designers.  If there’s a giant earthquake in Indonesia, I want to read about it NOW.  Not in a year when someone writes a book about it.  Get with the program.

Unfortunately, the first con is a deal-breaker for me.  Until I can get the hottest new title more easily on a device than I can from a store, I’ll be packing a paper copy.  The ebook industry could learn a lot from the music industry’s forays into the world of digital.  Make it open, easier, cheaper, and more convenient, and people will embrace your model.  The Apple model of a closed garden will work in the short term, but only until the open models catch up, in terms of content and price.  In the end, open wins.  People want to own their content (at least I do), and they don’t want it locked in to a vendor.  Even Apple has learned this on the iTunes model, with iTunes plus.  Instead of worrying about piracy, the industry needs to worry about losing the average consumer.

First one to release an open e-reader with comparable content to the brink and mortar store gets my business.  I’m interested in the Alex, as it solves some of these problems, but the main problem remains:  Content and freshness.

I’d love to hear what other people think about this, please let me know.