This blog post compares the development of e-books with the role of paper books, examining the possibility of coexistence between the two media and their future.
We live in a digital age where we obtain vast amounts of information daily through PCs and smartphones. This is because digital media has become widely available, and digital content delivered through such media is sufficiently supplied. People have grown accustomed to accessing news faster online than through newspapers or freely enjoying diverse content on YouTube rather than TV broadcasts. While people are naturally transitioning from analog to digital media like this, during university exam periods, it’s common to see people diligently reading books or notes on the subway. Why do they carry heavy books instead of handling everything with their smartphones as usual? This is likely because the medium of ‘books’ has not yet fully transitioned to digital. Despite e-books (e-books) having been around for decades, they still haven’t surpassed the status of ‘paper books’ and lack widespread public recognition. This phenomenon suggests that despite the significant advantages of e-books, they have not become mainstream because several issues remain unresolved. This article will discuss how e-books have evolved to their current state, what unresolved issues they face, and where e-books might stand once these issues are addressed.
Before briefly reviewing the history of e-books, let us first recall the history of ‘paper books’. If we consider ‘paper books’ as a term encompassing all books recorded on analog media, their history stretches back even further than the invention of paper by Cai Lun, including the era when records were made on silk or bamboo slips. E-books also emerged from the very beginning of the digital age. The Britannica Encyclopedia provided on CD-ROM and various fantasy novels serialized via PC communications already possessed a form of e-book. We simply didn’t call it that. Various devices for reading e-books appeared several times, but among them, the ones we somewhat remember are PDAs and electronic dictionaries.
The sudden spotlight on the previously unremarkable ‘e-book’ came with the arrival of the ‘Amazon Kindle’. Starting as an online bookstore, Amazon.com—now an internet retailer dominating the US retail market—launched the Kindle, an e-book device using ‘electronic ink’ technology, and actively began selling compatible e-book content. By using e-ink instead of LCD displays, eye strain was reduced, and the readability of e-books greatly improved. The problem of insufficient content also began to be resolved. However, there was a drawback: without a dedicated device, portability was poor. This issue has also been partially solved with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, leading to the current situation. In line with these changes, the Korean market is also selling e-books and dedicated devices, primarily through online bookstores, but the market size is still not large.
As partially revealed above, current e-books employ various implementation methods, resulting in diverse characteristics. However, many people experience only the characteristics of certain methods and hastily regard them as inherent drawbacks of e-books themselves, attributing this to the lack of widespread adoption. To dispel this misunderstanding, we will examine which implementation methods cause the aspects often cited as drawbacks and how they can be resolved.
The first issue is inconvenient portability without a dedicated device. Even if e-books are cheaper than paper books, the need to purchase a separate e-reader can act as a barrier to entry. However, this was only a problem during the era when dedicated devices were the only convenient way to carry books. With the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablet PCs, this has become an easily solved problem by simply installing a dedicated application.
The second issue is that, due to the nature of the display, e-books cause more eye strain than paper books, making them less suitable for prolonged reading. Standard displays continuously emit light through light-emitting elements, and their lower resolution compared to paper books causes glare and fatigue. However, using e-ink technology solves these problems. E-ink technology works by applying an electric charge to black and white particles to change their arrangement, creating a reflective surface that mimics printed paper. This eliminates glare, reduces eye strain, and consumes power only during screen transitions. However, its limited color expression and slow screen refresh rate mean it’s primarily used in dedicated e-reader devices. Smartphones cannot use e-ink, but as display resolutions continue to improve, text appears sharper, reducing eye strain.
The third issue is the scarcity of e-book content, particularly domestic content, which is very difficult to access. Typically, e-book content providers apply DRM, restricting access to their proprietary e-reader devices. This is because the leading e-reader device, the Amazon Kindle, is not available in Korea. However, domestic e-book readers have gradually evolved to a level where they can somewhat replace the Kindle. Furthermore, as usage via smartphones and tablet PCs increases, this problem is gradually being resolved. Additionally, it has become possible to directly convert paper books into e-books using scanners, and the number of specialized book scanning services has grown, making it easier to address content scarcity and DRM issues.
Thus, the disadvantages e-books have compared to paper books are gradually being resolved through the application of different methods or the advancement of existing ones. However, because they haven’t been resolved to a sufficient level yet, widespread adoption hasn’t occurred. I believe that once a certain threshold is crossed, adoption will explode. This is due to e-books’ greatest advantage over paper books: ‘accessibility’. The accessibility of e-books has an impact surpassing even the explosive spread of paper books following the invention of ‘movable type printing’. While movable type printing enabled mass production of paper books, making them easily accessible to anyone, paper books still require time to be produced and supplied to consumers. This timeframe is significantly longer when purchasing foreign books not in stock domestically. However, the advent of e-books has completely eliminated these constraints of time and space. A book that takes 10 days to arrive when purchased as a physical copy can be downloaded within minutes as an e-book.
The advantages of e-books don’t stop there. Dedicated e-reader devices are smaller and lighter than a typical physical book, offering exceptional portability capable of storing hundreds of titles. If you use your everyday smartphone or tablet, no additional device is needed. These advantages apply not only to carrying books but also to storing them. Collecting physical books can eventually fill your bookshelves, leaving no more space, but this never happens with e-books. Even if you have so many large e-books that they won’t all fit on a dedicated device, you can store them on your PC. Even if you lose an ebook file, you can get it again if your purchase history remains. Furthermore, while physical books can deteriorate or become unreadable over time depending on storage conditions, ebooks do not suffer this degradation. Additionally, from the supplier’s perspective, large production facilities or logistics warehouses are not required.
While e-books offer these outstanding advantages, explosive growth has been hindered by some unresolved issues. However, some of these problems are being solved through technological advancement, and others through market growth. Once these issues are sufficiently addressed, e-books could surpass the current position of paper books. Yet, even if e-books become mainstream, it would be premature to conclude that paper books will completely disappear. This is not about prioritizing the tactile and emotional value of physical books. The high accessibility of e-books will not merely replace physical books; rather, much like the invention of movable type printing, it will have the effect of expanding the book market itself.
