As an avid, lifelong reader, I’m not especially sympathetic to grouchy iPad owners complaining that reading on their device isn’t the same as reading a book.
As if complaints about reception on the iPhone 4 and worker conditions in Chinese factories weren’t enough for Apple, the company now faces a class action lawsuit from consumers who are unhappy that an iPad isn’t exactly the same as a book.
Three plaintiffs in California claim Apple over-promised and under-delivered on the iPad. They’re especially critical of the way the device shuts down automatically when it overheats. They also claim the marketing slogan, “reading on iPad is just like reading a book,” is misleading, and therefore Apple is engaging in fraud.
Their claim is 18 pages long (which you can read as a PDF here), but the most relevant sections are these:
“19. Among the iPad’s many features is “iBooks,” an e-book application which allows the iPad to act as an eBook reader, complete with APPLE’s own bookstore, a feature that also put the iPad in competition with the Amazon Kindle and/or other e-readers. The presence of this and other iPad applications such as an email reader, the “Safari” web browser, “iTunes,” “iPod,” and the availability of numerous built-in and add-on applications, make the iPad an attractive tool for consumers desiring the option of extended use of the product both indoors and outdoors, and under variable environmental conditions.
20. Indeed, according to the www.apple.com website, “[r]eading on iPad is just like reading a book.” However, contrary to this promise, using the iPad is not “just like reading a book” at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental environments. This promise, like other portions of APPLE’s marketing material for the iPad, is false.”
The suit goes on, complaining that the iPad overheats easily outdoors, is almost unusable outside in direct sunlight, and that Apple should have disclosed these “problems.”
As an avid, lifelong reader, as well as the owner of a competing eReader, I’m not especially sympathetic to these grouchy iPad owners.
When I decided earlier this summer that I wanted an eReader, it was for many of the usual reasons – convenience while traveling and reading at the gym, access to fair use classics via Google Books and Project Gutenburg, and clutter free subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.
In addition to the prohibitive cost ($499 for the iPad compared to less than $200 for most eReaders), the major reason I rejected the iPad is because it cannot possibly be “just like reading a book.” The backlit LED screen is so much like the computer screen I sit at every day that I couldn’t imagine settling in to read without getting a massive headache.
The additional features of the iPad – email, web browsing, and all those apps – are nice, but in the end I compromised and got a device exclusively designed for reading eBooks.
Both the nook from Barnes and Noble and the Kindle from Amazon are designed with electronic paper display technology, eInk, which resembles paper book pages more than the backlit screen on the iPad. This can reduced eyestrain, and make it possible to read outside in direct sunlight. (Read: Electronic Paper).
From my perspective, these iPad complainers are having a selfish case of buyers’ remorse. In investing in an iPad, they chose a device that can do a lot of things, but probably can’t do them all as well as specialized devices can.
While the flash of iBooks on the iPad is impressive, anyone who has ever used a computer in sunlight would know the screen might be a problem. And while the shutdown feature is inevitably annoying, as The Consumerist points out, anyone who read the environmental requirements on the iPad specs page would know the iPad’s operating temperature range is 32° to 95° F.
Apple’s claim that the iPad is just like reading a book might not be true, but it’s something anyone should be able to figure out themselves. Even eReaders like nook and Kindle, specifically designed to read like a book, don’t have the same reading experience. This isn’t fraud, its marketing.
To expect new technologies like the iPad to perform exactly as the old items we’re trying to replace is shortsighted because it ignores the new features and possibilities for reading that electronic books can provide. For example, publishers have started looking at enhanced or enriched eBooks that include video and other media for a new type of reading experience.
If you want to read a book that’s “just like reading a book,” grab a paperback from the bookstore or visit your local library. They’ll both be glad to have you.Have an iPad or eReader? What do you think of it? Do you think eBooks will ever replace “real books”? Share your thoughts, predictions, and comments below or e-mail them to [email protected].
