Are e-books and tablets the future for print media?

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Some are calling it the year’s hottest Christmas gadget. Others are suggesting it’s the future of publishing. Whatever you think, e-book readers are big news this year.

Amazon’s Kindle has become the best selling product on the Amazon.com website, and its hobbling of the International version for the UK market hasn’t stopped it being talked about in just about every broadsheet newspaper and lifestyle magazine in the land.

Analysts at Forrester Research expect three million e-book readers to have been sold during 2009 in the US alone, with 900,000 of those selling within November and December.

And that’s just the start. With Kindle rivals like the Plastic Logic QUE and the Barnes and Noble Nook adding new features, larger, touch sensitive screens and secondary colour displays to these devices, e-books should be even bigger in 2010.

Tablets on the way

Yet the current wave of e-book readers might only be the appetiser for the real next-generation of media devices. Few products of recent years have achieved the mythical status of Apple’s rumoured Media Tablet or Slate - a full-colour, video-capable device that apparently resembles an iPod Touch with a 10.7in touchscreen, connected to the internet via 3G and/or Wi-Fi.

According to sources from the Sydney Morning Herald and a slip from an the New York Times, Apple has been demonstrating the device to prospective media partners around the globe.

If the Apple Tablet ever does launch, it won’t have the market to itself. Earlier this month, Creative Labs used its annual general meeting to announce a ‘Mediabook’, a similar colour tablet-like device featuring a colour touchscreen and internet capabilities.

Details have been leaked of a prototype Microsoft device, codenamed Courier, which boasts dual seven-inch touchscreens and advanced media and web browsing features.

From announcements made by magazine giant Conde Nast, we also know that HP is working on a media tablet of its own.

While these next-generation devices might not be able to match the battery life of the e-ink powered Kindle, and will certainly arrive at a higher price point, the lure of colour, rich content, video playback and internet features may be enough to make that seem worthwhile.

Salvation for newspapers?

This is all very interesting, and book publishers around the globe are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of more e-books being sold. However, it’s publishers of newspapers and magazines who potentially have the most to gain from the sales of these devices.

The global recession, plummeting newspaper sales and the slide in advertising revenue has brought the old debate in the publishing industry over free vs paid for content on the web to a new head.

Earlier this month, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corporation would introduce fees for access to content on its sites, including those of The Times, The Sun, The New York Post and The Australian: "There's not enough advertising in the world to make all the websites profitable... We'd rather have fewer people coming to our websites but paying."

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