The birth of electronic readers dated as early as 1971 and this first electronic book was known as “Dynabook”, a general-purpose computer which main function was to present book contents electronically for reading. The conception of this e-book was initially proposed by the minds behind Project Gutenberg who aimed for digitization of cultural works and archives. These e-books however, were only made available to a few groups as these only focused on specific interests or areas of studies in which published books were digitized.
The worldwide availability of internet in 1990s has greatly contributed to further developments in electronic reader devices. Transfer of e-book documents was made easier along with the innovation of electronic mails and electronic documents transfer. Several e-book file formats emerged at the same time, initiated by growing software companies like Adobe. Portable document format or PDF is the most commonly used format for e-book reading since its excogitation in 1993.
The dissemination of e-books to the public in United States grew rapidly in 1998 that was originally intended for scholarly use and was not meant for anything other than educational and research purposes. This was also the time for the first commercialization of electronic readers into the market, The Softbook and Gemstar’s Rocket E-book Reader.
However, both e-book readers did not quite gain much interest from the public so Gemstar closed down by 2003. A year later, Sony decided to gamble into creating its own version of electronic reader device called Librié. Sony was the very first company that introduced the e-Ink technology which features readability capabilities even under direct sunlight, reading e-book was almost as clear as words printed on a book.
By 2007, Amazon.com ventured into releasing their e-book reader that could eventually work over Librié. They developed Amazon Kindle that employs wireless connectivity enabling its users to download, browse for and read e-books and other digital media online. Its improved e-Ink technology flaunts better and well-defined readability features simulating the ideal book reading.
During the 3-year span, several companies followed similar tracks into releasing their own versions of electronic reader devices and in the end of 2010, a more improved technology has been deployed into these e-book readers. Apple and Google even introduced similar products into the market giving a wider venue for different companies to compete by enhancing their e-book readers’ features allowing the users to enjoy many benefits out from this interesting competition. Indeed, the development in electronic reader devices has dramatically improved for the past years.
