Harry to go digital with the magic of Amazon's eBook
Harry Potter and his wizarding chums may be about to make a digital publishing leap. Online bookseller Amazon has plans to unveil a wireless electronic book reader, a kind of literary iPod, which already has UK publishers scrambling to digitise their entire range of titles.
The device, which sources claim could be launched as early as next month, would follow the recent US launch of the Sony eBook Reader, a machine the size of a hardback that stores digital copies of up to 80 books and lasts 7,500 pages on a single charge.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, digital director of Penguin, said: "With Amazon and Sony both reported to be planning electronic book reader launches in the UK, we are highly positive about the market for digital books."
A source close to Bloomsbury, the publisher of the Harry Potter novels, said the company was also keen to adapt literary works to the new technology.
Mr Ettinghausen said the public's appetite for digital content, coupled with a wireless electronic book, will allow booksellers to offer instant digital downloads of all types of literature in cafés, airports and, of course, in bookshops. Penguin has begun the process of digitising all its books and already offers a limited selection of digital downloads from its website.
Mr Ettinghausen believes that travellers will no longer be forced to choose which book they want to take with them on a trip. They will be able to download dozens of volumes on to one device taking up no more luggage space than a single paperback. Students will be able to slip several bookshelves' worth of textbooks into a jacket pocket.
Although transferring content into electronic format has resulted in heavy losses for record labels as a result of widespread piracy, Mr Ettinghausen is confident that electronic books will not replace the paper variety but increase the public's appetite for reading.
He believes that paper books have an intrinsic appeal to their owners and also cites the way in which the launch of Amazon's internet sales service in the 1990s preceded the opening of huge new London bookstores such as Borders in Oxford Street and Waterstones in Piccadilly. Industry predictions at the time had been that internet sales would force high street book -stores to close.
Amazon is currently keeping its electronic book, believed to be named "Kindle" and priced at more than $400 (£200), under wraps and refused to comment on its existence. But US industry sources are predicting an October launch for a device that could do for reading what the iPod did for mobile music.
By Tony Glover
Published: 09 September 2007
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
Harry Potter and his wizarding chums may be about to make a digital publishing leap. Online bookseller Amazon has plans to unveil a wireless electronic book reader, a kind of literary iPod, which already has UK publishers scrambling to digitise their entire range of titles.
The device, which sources claim could be launched as early as next month, would follow the recent US launch of the Sony eBook Reader, a machine the size of a hardback that stores digital copies of up to 80 books and lasts 7,500 pages on a single charge.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, digital director of Penguin, said: "With Amazon and Sony both reported to be planning electronic book reader launches in the UK, we are highly positive about the market for digital books."
A source close to Bloomsbury, the publisher of the Harry Potter novels, said the company was also keen to adapt literary works to the new technology.
Mr Ettinghausen said the public's appetite for digital content, coupled with a wireless electronic book, will allow booksellers to offer instant digital downloads of all types of literature in cafés, airports and, of course, in bookshops. Penguin has begun the process of digitising all its books and already offers a limited selection of digital downloads from its website.
Mr Ettinghausen believes that travellers will no longer be forced to choose which book they want to take with them on a trip. They will be able to download dozens of volumes on to one device taking up no more luggage space than a single paperback. Students will be able to slip several bookshelves' worth of textbooks into a jacket pocket.
Although transferring content into electronic format has resulted in heavy losses for record labels as a result of widespread piracy, Mr Ettinghausen is confident that electronic books will not replace the paper variety but increase the public's appetite for reading.
He believes that paper books have an intrinsic appeal to their owners and also cites the way in which the launch of Amazon's internet sales service in the 1990s preceded the opening of huge new London bookstores such as Borders in Oxford Street and Waterstones in Piccadilly. Industry predictions at the time had been that internet sales would force high street book -stores to close.
Amazon is currently keeping its electronic book, believed to be named "Kindle" and priced at more than $400 (£200), under wraps and refused to comment on its existence. But US industry sources are predicting an October launch for a device that could do for reading what the iPod did for mobile music.
By Tony Glover
Published: 09 September 2007
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
