Following on from Richard Padley’s recent post on apps vs e-books, it has emerged that one publisher at least, Penguin Books, has made the choice. Up until now the battle has been pretty one-sided, with both Apple and Amazon releasing their e-Books using the no frills e-Pub format. However, Penguin has now planted its flag firmly in the ‘app’ camp; choosing a format which will enable them to embed audio, images and even animation and video into their e-book apps. ‘The definition of a book itself … is up for grabs,’ said CEO of Penguin Books, John Makinson.
It’s a decisive move, but is it a wise one? Will parents resist higher-cost platforms like the iPad, in favour of cheaper, page-turning e-readers like Sony and Kindle? Only time can tell.
Penguin has made a bold pre-emptive strike. Spotting an opening in this fledgling market it has opted for the expanded functionality offered by the iPad (not to mention the many copycat tablets now scheduled for 2010 launch). It has long been anticipated that media outlets such as newspapers and magazines would be quick on the uptake with app based solutions, which give them the capability to embed images, interactive elements and videos alongside stories, in something resembling an edition of the Hogwarts Daily Prophet.
The main question to ask however (if you’ll excuse a slightly excruciating pun), is whether this will actually result in App-ier readers?
“Book” is a word that has historically covered a lot of different kinds of content, unified only by being bound between covers. Different kinds of books have different kinds of e-solutions; it doesn’t make sense to think about a novel and an atlas the same way.
Absolutely, they’re both different types of content with different functions.
What I think is interesting though is to see how the conversion of various formats, such as the two you have mentioned, will translate into e-books and what stratergies companies will take to best address the functionality and needs of these various formats.