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On 14 November 2000, online bookstore Amazon.com began offering a selection of about 1,000 e-book titles for sale, all in the Microsoft Reader format. The Reader software is available for free download from Amazon's and Microsoft's Web sites.
Amazon's announcement follows a late-August 2000 agreement that Microsoft would create a customized version of its Reader software for the e-bookseller. However, the e-book experience itself will be more important to customers than the device that distributes it (see Gartner FirstTake "Gemstar Hopes Bestsellers Will Drive the Success of Its E-Book Reader"). The question thus becomes whether e-booksellers are prepared to offer e-book consumers a reading experience they cannot obtain more conveniently and at a lower cost through conventional print media.
Amazon has taken some steps toward this goal by providing a handful of exclusively electronic titles, though nothing as high-profile as a title by Stephen King, whose novel "Riding the Bullet" was published online in March, or by best-selling authors like Patricia Cornwell and Ed McBain, who have limited exclusive agreements with Gemstar. Additionally, Amazon will offer about 30 free titles to allow consumers to try out the software. However this may not be enough to cause consumers to start purchasing e-books in economically significant numbers, especially since most e-books remain more expensive than paper books.
More likely, Amazon, like Barnes & Noble before it, is merely ensuring it has a respectable presence in the e-book market. Microsoft, too, seems intent on locking up critical distribution channels for its Reader format at an early date.
However, since free software and free titles are available, consumers should take this opportunity to download Microsoft Reader and experience e-book reading first-hand. Although the first-generation e-book experience will likely not be optimal, the resulting consumer feedback will help drive e-book vendors toward creating a user experience that can fuel this fledgling market. Enterprises should monitor reader technology to see if it offers an option for electronic content delivery.
Analytical Sources: Alan Weintraub and James Lundy, Integrated Document & Output Management
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