As long as on-screen reading remained confined to websites and downloadable e-books, the ways to gather knowledge from anything that appears on the computer screen were predictable.
Texts and images apart, the successful advent of ‘flash’ as a technology to show web video marked a monumental change in our usage of Internet to seek and gather information.
Looking Back
Flash flourishes at the cost of WMV or QuickTime simply because it has a good codec that kind of balances the various factors like the file size, the video quality, and streaming performance. The playback starts quickly and catches up with the concurrent download more effortlessly than either WMV or QuickTime.
However, the credit of catalyzing and transforming the technology of flash to a leaping interest in web video must go to Google when it purchased YouTube in October 2006.
Today YouTube enjoys a staggering daily video views exceeding 1 billion, and it is already being seen as the largest ‘search engine’ after Google.
Amazon’s Trump
There is no reason to believe that the world would amaze at the lightning popularity of web video and stop working out other ideas.
That this was not the case became apparent when Amazon launched Kindle in November 2007.
The price was steep at $399 but people didn’t mind paying the sum because of the utter simplicity with which they got to read their favorite newspapers and magazines, the NYT bestsellers (albeit paying just $9.99 for each), and so much more.
Kindle became popular in US but unfortunately remained and will remain confined there for at least a week more. Oct 19 is when the shipment of Kindle will start to other countries.
Amazon has cut the price of Kindle to $260 – $280 range. Meanwhile Sony Reader which was there when Kindle came into being but was not as popular as the newly unveiled Kindle, has re-launched the product a few months back in a new avatar, called PRS or Portable Digital e-Reader System.
Sony PRS has already created quite a bit of buzz, which is why perhaps Amazon reduced the Kindle price.
And now…Vook
You may find this post a bit disjointed but the reason I mention about e-readers by Amazon and Sony above is that the newly launched Vook – the product and the company have the same name – appears to be quite similar to them in appearance.
But Vook has a big advantage. It sells video e-books at very low prices, and they come with editions for online viewing and as an iPhone application.
As of this writing Vook has partnered with the publishers Simon & Schuster, and made 4 of them that are put on sale.
The first reactions about people’s experience with Vook are reasonably positive.
Looking forward, the day is surely not very far when video e-books will start becoming available with e-readers like Kindle. Do not be surprised if video ebooks become available on all mobile phones like iPhone in not too distant future.
At a time when technologies like Google Wave, Qik, and Android phones are making splashes in our lives, it will be interesting to know how things take shape over time.
What do you feel? Do share your forecast with us.
The following video is about the launch of the new ‘Vook’.
Updated (April 16, 2010)
After ipad came into being, the thought was hovering in my mind as to what the future holds for Vook. Here is an article that deals well on the topic:
Before iBooks, There Was the Vook … But Are Vooks Relevant in the Era of the iPad?
You’re welcome to leave your comments below about this new development. Thank you.
 This article of October 11th, 2009 is authored by Partha Bhattacharya, who runs this website. Catering to the clients' video needs aside, Partha also writes guest articles for other web publications. |
Partha,
Thanks for this article — it’s very thoughtful and considered. Please contact me at Matthew@vook.com if you want more information. . . and that goes for anyone who’s interested.
Best,
Matt Cavnar
Vook
Thanks Matt for your kind comments.
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