E- books popularity on the rise

E-book also known as a digital book is an e-text that forms the digital media, which can be read on a personal computer or a hand-held device. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books such as the Apple ipad and Amazon’s Kindle Book. This enables its users to go on the internet and download e-books for free, and it also provides convenience in the consumer or user's everyday life. Other than that, Internet sites have the potential to combine words and images such as logos, menu bars, hyperlinks, hot sports and etc (Walsh 2006). Hence, it is very simple and easy to purchase and download e-books through the internet.

Adding to this, e-books can be safely stored and carried from one place to another, compared to ordinary books and e-books provide links for easier access to more information and related websites (Sasson 2010). An article entitled “E-books popularity on the rise” which was featured on the 7.30 Report on 18 March 2010 reported that, the demand for the virtual book has gone vertical in the past year, fuelled by the recent global release of Amazon’s Kindle Book and text month’s world wide launch of the much hyped Apple ipad. Meanwhile, about 50 per cent of all book sales in most major markets are from e-book sales (Cornwall 2010).

Apple ipad

Apple ipad was designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large Multi-Touch screen and advanced capabilities of ipad. The users are able to purchase new books from the iBookstore, which can be downloaded the free through iBook application from the internet. Hence, it is also an amazing place to browse and shop for books anytime, anywhere that allows you to browse tens of thousands of books, and download the book, while enabling you to read right away (ipad, 2010).

Hence, with todays technology, e-books can be read anywhere, on the train, airplane and bus, and it is so convenient for people to purchase an e-book due to the 24 hours a day availability, everyday of the year, from the comfort of your own house or office, and even if you are on a vacation, whereby, most people are spending more time in front of their computers, as compared to sitting down and reading a book (Sasson 2010). However, some people still prefer to read printed books rather than an e-book. According to Nielsen (1997), it is stated that readers rarely read every word in web contents as the words are very small especially for the older generation as this will cause them to strain their eyesight even more.

References:

Cornwell, D., 2010, E-books popularity on the rise, The 7.30 Report, viewed on 15 June 2010.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm

Ipod, 2010, iBooks: A novel way to buy and read books, viewed on 15 June 2010.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ibooks.html

Nielsen, J. 1997, How Users Read the Web, viewed on 15 June 2010. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a/html

Sasson, R., 2010, The benefits and advantages of Ebooks, viewed on 15 June 2010.
http://www.successconsciousness.com/ebooks_benefits.htm

Walsh, M 2006, “The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Australian Journal of language Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37.