[Summary]
In April 2001, there were 17 million PDAs versus 100,000 ebook readers
worldwide, according to a Seybold Report available online. The Palm
Pilot was launched as the first PDA in March 1996, with 23 million Palm
Pilots sold between 1996 and 2002. Palm stayed the leader -- 36.8% of
PDAs were Palm Pilots in 2002 -- despite a fierce competition from
Microsoft’s Pocket PC and the PDAs of Hewlett-Packard, Sony,
Handspring, Toshiba and Casio. The main platforms were Palm OS (for 55%
of PDAs) and Pocket PC (for 25,7% of PDAs). People reading on PDAs
could read on Mobipocket Reader (available in March 2000), Microsoft
Reader (April 2000), Palm Reader (March 2001), Acrobat Reader (May 2001
for Palm Pilot, and December 2001 for Pocket PC), and finally Adobe
Reader (May 2003), that replaced Acrobat Reader to read both standard
PDF files and secure PDF files of copyrighted books. PDAs were then
replaced by smartphones, from the Nokia 9210 in 2001 to the iPhone in
April 2007.
***
In April 2001, there were 17 million PDAs versus 100,000 ebook readers
worldwide, according to a Seybold Report available online. In 2005,
PDAs were replaced with smartphones.
# The Palm Pilot
The Palm Pilot was launched as the first PDA in March 1996, with 23
million Palm Pilots sold between 1996 and 2002. In July 2002, the Palm
Reader was also available for computers, and Palm Digital Media, Palm’s
digital bookstore (later renamed Palm eBook Store), was offering 5,500
ebooks in several languages. 10,000 ebooks were available in 2003.
Some book professionals were worried about reading on such a small
screen, whereas PDA users found that the screen size wasn't a problem
at all to read a good book on a pocket-size multifunction device.
# The eBookMan
Franklin’s eBookMan was a handheld device to read books on the Franklin
Reader, with standard PDA functions (calendar, voice recorder, etc.).
In October 2000, the device received the eBook Technology Award at the
International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Three models (EBM-900,
EBM-901, EBM-911) were available in early 2001, with a RAM size of 8 or
16 MB, and a backlit or not LCD screen. The screen was large compared
to other handheld devices, but only in black and white, unlike the
Pocket PC and some Palm Pilots. People could also listen to audiobooks
and MP3 music files. In October 2001, the eBookMan offered the
Mobipocket Reader alongside the Franklin Reader, and the Franklin
Reader was also available for the Pocket PC and for models from Psion,
Palm and Nokia. Franklin developed a digital bookstore while partnering
with other companies, for example with Audible.com to access its
collection of 4,500 audiobooks.
# Other PDAs
Palm stayed the leader – 36.8% of PDAs were Palm Pilots in 2002 --
despite a fierce competition from Microsoft’s Pocket PC and from the
PDAs of Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Handspring, Toshiba and Casio. The main
platforms were Palm OS (for 55% of PDAs) and Pocket PC (for 25,7% of
PDAs).
People reading on their PDAs could use Mobipocket Reader (available
since March 2000), Microsoft Reader (April 2000), Palm Reader (March
2001), Acrobat Reader (May 2001 for Palm Pilot, and December 2001 for
Pocket PC), and finally Adobe Reader (May 2003) that replaced Acrobat
Reader to read both standard PDF files and secure PDF files of
copyrighted books.
Publishers began to digitize their books and sell digital versions
online in various formats (LIT, PRC, PDF, OeB), on their own websites
or in the digital bookstores of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Palm,
Mobipocket, Numilog, and the likes.
# Smartphones
In 2004, prices of PDAs began to drop, with the leaders still being
Palm, Sony and Hewlett-Packard. People began buying smartphones instead
of PDAs. The first smartphone was Nokia 9210, launched as early as 2001
with a Symbian platform , and followed by Nokia Series 60, Sony
Ericsson P800, and the smartphones of Motorola and Siemens. Sony
stopping selling PDAs in February 2005. 3,7% of cellphones sold in 2004
were smartphones. 9% of cellphones sold in 2006 were smartphones, with
90 million smartphones sold for one billion cell phones. Apple launched
the iPhone in June 2007 in the U.S., in late 2007 in Europe and in 2008
in Asia.
Would people prefer reading on mobile handsets like the iPhone 3G (with
its Stanza Reader) or the T-Mobile G1 (with Google's platform Android
and its reader), or would they prefer using ebook readers? Was there a
market for both smartphones and ebook readers? These were some of the
fascinating issues discussed at the time.