Consumers need to strip the hype off e-readers

During an informal talk with parents of St. Scholastica’s College students, La Salle’s IT Consultant Jun Lozada (of the ZTE Broadband controversy) highlighted the apparent success of the implementation of e-book readers in La Salle classrooms.

Naturally, a whole new industry stands to gain from such a trend, and many parents simply go with what seems to be the inevitable tide.

But a deeper question also needs to be raised: Are e-book readers the only way to digitize a classroom? With recent world issues regarding the monopolistic pricing of e-books, a second look at the supply chain also needs to be done.

Following are a few critical ideas that parents and potential e-book reader buyers can think about.

Proprietary

Amazon launched an e-book reader, the Kindle, that sells for roughly $80 to $100, or P3,500 to P4,300. The product is not sold locally.

Books for Kindle are proprietary, but can be read on other gadgets with an Amazon reader application. Kindle also uses a passive e-ink display that is easier on the eyes, while other gadgets are active displays that can be read even in the dark.

For those who wish to publish for the Kindle, they have to do it using the proprietary Kindle e-book format.

It appears logical that any proposed gadget that is priced beyond the above amount deserves some explanation. To cite, La Salle Greenhills’ initial e-tablet was reported to have cost an additional P14,500 on tuition fees.

Also, Samsung Galaxy Tab e-book readers can range from around P18,000 to P35,000. The Apple iPad2 costs around P18,990 at the online store.

Both gadgets can run the open e-Pub e-book and other formats, but not the Amazon Kindle format. It may be worthy of note that these tablets are multifunction and go beyond basic e-book capabilities.

Basic computer

If brand-new e-book readers cannot be made affordable to ordinary students, other options are available. With the main objective of lightening the book load of students and other common issues, the basic computer—it could be a small laptop for mobility—with an Internet connection can actually go a long way in addressing the problem.

For education to become truly mass-based, schools are challenged to provide a system (i.e., shared computer network) that provides access to all students.

Publishers are enjoined to develop and provide a format that can be downloaded on a regular computer—much the same way that operating systems are sold via CDs and subsequently uploaded on one’s personal computer.

Copy protection

A technology called Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a copy protection feature that ensures both publisher and author copyrights are not violated by uncontrolled copying of the same book.

Anvil Publishing is among the local publishers who have started running the engine on the e-book wagon.

“Anvil is currently doing a limited number of books for client schools, particularly for this school year,” says assistant publishing manager Ani Habulan.

“The schools asked for a simple web-optimized PDF format for the books. We expect they will ask for a richer and more interactive format next year.”

Habulan confirms that it is quite possible to format e-books that can be downloadable on a simple computer.

“Most e-books can be read on a computer. It’s the application/program that will enable the user to open and read those e-books,” Habulan says.

“If your computer doesn’t have an e-reader, then you can’t do anything. Our goal is to have our books available for download to at least two gadgets per title. Some DRM preferences are optioned by clients, and we’d like to provide them with this.”

Freedom of choice

On another note, there is also a dilemma with foreign published textbooks.

Because of a Marcos-era decree and agreement with foreign publishers to publish low-cost textbooks here (using newsprint), the cost of e-textbooks is actually higher because these are sold at US prices, not at Philippine rates.

Thus, a paper textbook that costs P450 here might cost $50 as an e-book, unless a new agreement is reached.

In order to avoid monopolistic pricing issues, the sale of e-book readers needs to be presented to parents with multiple choices and not as a single format requirement.

Technology should be accessible to everyone and not remain the privilege of a select few. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that all students acquire the benefits of digitization with or without the e-book device.

The e-book reader itself need not be the main focus of digital progress. If you think about it, the possession of the latest high-tech thingamajig has never been proven to cause academic excellence.