Long live the tablet

While some shudder at the thought that the next generation of children may learn how to read Mark Twain or Amos Oz on an LCD screen, anything that encourages children to read is valuable.

By IAN WHITE
iPad 311 (photo credit: BLOOMBERG)
iPad 311
(photo credit: BLOOMBERG)
The meteoric success of the iPad tablet, with more than 15 million sold, created a new category almost overnight, and other manufactures have struggled to play catch-up with Apple, which is preparing to release the iPad 2 in April. Tablets are not new, having been used by the medical and scientific communities for a number of years, but never before has a personal computing device created such a stir in the buying public.
Building on its enormous base of iPhone and iPod users, Apple successfully melded a portable computer with an eReader and media player, and set the bar extraordinarily high for a first-generation product. Samsung rushed to challenge Apple with its Galaxy Tab, but the product struggled out of the gate due to a lukewarm response from the tech press and a very low-key marketing campaign.
Despite claims from the Korean manufacturer that it has done quite well around the globe, including Europe and the Middle East, it failed to ignite the passion of consumers looking for an alternative to the iPad.
Manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Motorola and RIM (manufacturer of the BlackBerry) delayed the release of their own tablets, but it looks like this is going to be the year that Apple faces an onslaught of tablets that offer some real competition. Motorola’s Xoom and RIM’s Playbook offer rival operating systems, superior and faster processors, comprehensive media playback capabilities and tethering with Android-based smartphones and BlackBerrys.
For the Israeli business traveler, the ability to synchronize between the tablet and smartphone will be a very handy feature. The only issue that has yet to be resolved is how broadband networks will cope with all of the additional users requiring a lot more bandwidth.
The creative community has not been left out either, as tablets offer a truly interactive platform that can be manipulated with one’s fingers or even devices such as the Pogo sketch stylus. The ability to illustrate on a 7” to 10” touchscreen has already been embraced by graphic artists and industrial designers, who love the portability of tablets and their high-definition screens. Tablets have already begun showing up in the classroom, and it is more than likely that the next generation of students in the developed world will be using them for homework assignments, test taking, research and media playback.
The Hebrew Bible and siddur are already available in different formats for use on tablets and smartphones, and while one shouldn’t hold one’s their breath and expect to see residents of Mea She’arim replace their walls of religious tomes with an iPad, I have seen more than a few members of the Orthodox community using tablets to research some religious and not-so religious topics.
THE OTHER product that has really created quite a stir is the eReader. Those of us who hold the printed page sacred certainly raised a few eyebrows when the first generation of eReaders from Sony and Amazon (Kindle) were introduced a few years ago, but the response of the marketplace around the globe has been quite extraordinary. EInk screens may never replace the feel of paper, but the ability to access millions of titles in various languages has an enormous appeal to everyone from the casual reader to the academic looking for a book that has been out of print for decades.
Some may shudder at the thought that the next generation of children may learn how to read Dr.
Seuss, Mark Twain or Amos Oz on an LCD screen, but the reality is that anything that encourages children to read is a valuable tool. The other advantage to eBooks is that they are cheaper than the print version and depending on the eReader, can be lent to other people for limited periods of time.
The current eReader market is dominated by three products: Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s NOOK and NOOKcolor and Apple’s iPad, which account for almost 27 million eReaders in less than two years. Sony, Kobo and other smaller manufacturers represent less than 10 percent of the market and have fallen far behind as the three leading manufacturers have pushed their eReader software and bookstores onto tablets and smartphones. It is now possible to run all three on one device and that doesn’t even include Google’s new eBook service.
The iPad has made the greatest penetration into the Israeli market, but the NOOKcolor and Kindle are not going to be left in the dust as they offer a superior reading experience and expansive selection of books.
For the Israeli author, the eReader offers the single greatest opportunity to expose this body of literature to a global audience. A number of the platforms make it easy for authors to self-publish and cut out the traditional publisher and earn more revenue for their work. The only drawback is that the writer is therefore responsible for the marketing of his book. A cursory search on the NOOKcolor brought up more than 6,000 titles on Judaism, Israel and Jewish-related topics, so there is clearly no shortage of content.
The meteoric success of the iPad tablet, with more than 15 million sold, created a new category almost overnight, and other manufactures have struggled to play catch-up with Apple, which is preparing to release the iPad 2 in February. Tablets are not new, having been used by the medical and scientific communities for a number of years, but never before has a personal computing device created such a stir in the buying public.
Building on its enormous base of iPhone and iPod users, Apple successfully melded a portable computer with an eReader and media player, and set the bar extraordinarily high for a first-generation product. Samsung rushed to challenge Apple with its Galaxy Tab, but the product struggled out of the gate due to a lukewarm response from the tech press and a very low-key marketing campaign.
Despite claims from the Korean manufacturer that it has done quite well around the globe, including Europe and the Middle East, it failed to ignite the passion of consumers looking for an alternative to the iPad.
Manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Motorola and RIM (manufacturer of the BlackBerry) delayed the release of their own tablets, but it looks like this is going to be the year that Apple faces an onslaught of tablets that offer some real competition. Motorola’s Xoom and RIM’s Playbook offer rival operating systems, superior and faster processors, comprehensive media playback capabilities and tethering with Android-based smartphones and BlackBerrys.
For the Israeli business traveler, the ability to synchronize between the tablet and smartphone will be a very handy feature. The only issue that has yet to be resolved is how broadband networks will cope with all of the additional users requiring a lot more bandwidth.
The creative community has not been left out either, as tablets offer a truly interactive platform that can be manipulated with one’s fingers or even devices such as the Pogo sketch stylus. The ability to illustrate on a 7” to 10” touchscreen has already been embraced by graphic artists and industrial designers, who love the portability of tablets and their high-definition screens. Tablets have already begun showing up in the classroom, and it is more than likely that the next generation of students in the developed world will be using them for homework assignments, test taking, research and media playback.
The Hebrew Bible and siddur are already available in different formats for use on tablets and smartphones, and while one shouldn’t one’s their breath and expect to see residents of Mea She’arim replace their walls of religious tomes with an iPad, I have seen more than a few members of the Orthodox community using tablets to research some religious and not-so religious topics.
THE OTHER product that has really created quite a stir is the eReader. Those of us who hold the printed page sacred certainly raised a few eyebrows when the first generation of eReaders from Sony and Amazon (Kindle) were introduced a few years ago, but the response of the marketplace around the globe has been quite extraordinary. EInk screens may never replace the feel of paper, but the ability to access millions of titles in various languages has an enormous appeal to everyone from the casual reader to the academic looking for a book that has been out of print for decades.
Some may shudder at the thought that the next generation of children may learn how to read Dr.
Seuss, Mark Twain or Amos Oz on an LCD screen, but the reality is that anything that encourages children to read is a valuable tool. The other advantage to eBooks is that they are cheaper than the print version and depending on the eReader, can be lent to other people for limited periods of time.
The current eReader market is dominated by three products: Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s NOOK and NOOKcolor and Apple’s iPad, which account for almost 27 million eReaders in less than two years. Sony, Kobo and other smaller manufacturers represent less than 10 percent of the market and have fallen far behind as the three leading manufacturers have pushed their eReader software and bookstores onto tablets and smartphones. It is now possible to run all three on one device and that doesn’t even include Google’s new eBook service.
The iPad has made the greatest penetration into the Israeli market, but the NOOKcolor and Kindle are not going to be left in the dust as they offer a superior reading experience and expansive selection of books.
For the Israeli author, the eReader offers the single greatest opportunity to expose this body of literature to a global audience. A number of the platforms make it easy for authors to self-publish and cut out the traditional publisher and earn more revenue for their work. The only drawback is that the writer is therefore responsible for the marketing of his book. A cursory search on the NOOKcolor brought up more than 6,000 titles on Judaism, Israel and Jewish-related topics, so there is clearly no shortage of content.
The one issue that has reared its ugly head is that Hebrew is not yet supported on specific devices, especially in the ePub format which dominates the marketplace. It certainly works on the iPad and iPhone, but the results so far on the Kindle and NOOKcolor have been less than satisfactory. The NOOKcolor is an Android-based tablet which has already been rooted by hackers and developers, so it is fair to assume that a solution regarding the use of Hebrew is forthcoming. The Kindle uses its own format and what may be required to read Hebrew ePubs on that platform is a browser-based solution.
Amazon is unlikely to let the Israeli market escape its clutches.
This is going to be a breakthrough year for these two segments and don’t be surprised if the next time you sit down in a café, the person sitting next to you is switching between checking his e-mail, watching a video on YouTube and reading the latest novel from James Patterson on a tablet or dedicated eReader. Just don’t laugh when he answers the phone with it. That’s coming as well.