The Bookseller.com

28th August 2008

Mark Chillingworth is editor of online information title Information World Review (www.iwr.co.uk).

Frankfurt: eBook 2.0 fails to arrive

11.10.07

Amazon and Sony were expected to steal the show this Frankfurt with their eBook readers, but they are instead conspicuous in their absence. But that has not stopped publishers and technology providers from talking about the devices and their potential.

I was particularly interested in a conversation I had with sceintific, technical and medical publisher WIley, where it hinted that it and other specialists may get involved in driving the adoption of eBooks.

Could we see the eBook reader adopt a similar model to the mobile phone where users sign up to a subscription service, content of a particular kind in this case, and in return they get a sleek and sexy device? It's certainly worked for the mobile industry, which now resembles the car world with its emphasis on styling and marketing.

But such a move could also be a blind alley, as one expert said to me, these devices don't support the interlinking and interactivity that content users are currently enjoying with the web.