| iLiad and
De Tijd eNewsPaper (engels)
Bron: Buziaulane.blogspot.com
12.12.06
Overlooking the summaries of the research and the
PDF presentation of De Tijd eNewsPaper pilot, a general picture
starts to become clear.
This was a live pilot of a new device, which has been destined for
rendering newspapers and books. It has not been a small pilot as
200 people, selected out of a group of 500 interested people, have
participated in the pilot. More than 60 issues were published for
this pilot during 2,5 months, giving the publisher and the telco
the assurance that it worked. What did we learn?
The research results show many a detail such as
a SWOT analysis, activities or better a lack of activities by interactive
users and usability points. In general, the results are almost obligatory.
The pilot was performed for more than 60 days; it worked and despite
some small remarks on the usability of the iLiad, the experiment
was successful. However the iLiad will only be used in the remote
future.
I personally think that two main questions have
been left unanswered. One question is the multi-functionality of
the device and the audience. The other question is about the audience.
Multi-functionality
The iLiad however is limited in its purpose. It is a text iPod,
storing documents such as newspapers, books and manuals for reading.
In surveys taken in the past with electronic books every time the
single purpose of the e-book readers was see as a problem. E-book
readers were expensive for the single function they performed: rendering
the texts and illustrations.
In these surveys the e-books were compared with
PDAs, the multi-functional devices, which have been extended with
mobile facilities these days.
Granted the iLiad has wireless connectivity, which
has not been used to the fullest yet. Also the annotation/writing
facility has not been tested in De Tijd experiment. But this writing
facility will not turn the iLiad into a PDA.
I have likened the iLiad to an iPod. So far the
iPod has proven to be a single music device. And yet, contrary to
a PDA, it has sold like crazy. So why should a text iPod not sell
like crazy? In an earlier instalment I have indicated that a number
of conditions are needed for success: a promoter, reasonable prices
of the devices and of the content and ease of distribution. With
the iLiad and similar devices (even the Sony e-book) they clearly
lack a promoter and a reasonable price for the device so far.
Audience
In an earlier instalment I have indicated that the pilot group of
users of De Tijd were early adopters: highly educated business men,
who were versatile with computers. So this pilot group of users
can be seen as the pioneers of this device; on the other hand they
prove that the device is not ready yet for a general roll-out.
So will it work with an audience of a general newspaper?
I guess that the versatility with computers of such an audience
is lower than De Tijd pilot group. Besides it is clear that the
need to know the news is less lower. It will be interesting to see
what the results will be of the Dutch consortium, which will be
a follow up to De Tijd experiment.
So far the iLiad has proven that it the screen is
an absolute pleasure to the eye. But from De Tijd experiment it
is also clear that the iLiad is something of the remote future.
It is not a break-through for the publishing industry like the iPod
was for the music industry. The big question is now how remote is
remote: short term, middle long term or long term?
Link:
buziaulane.blogspot.com
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