Gorky once said that “books are the ladder of human progress”. Reading can not only enrich human cognition, but also experience the author’s emotional thinking and enrich people’s emotions in the process of reading. Therefore, in the current progress of human beings, reading has become the most powerful way to improve the ability and influence of contemporary people with ideas and culture. With the continuous progress of science and technology, mobile reading has gradually become the mainstream way of reading consumers.

Under the dividend of network drama flow, the era of national reading is coming

In recent years, hit Chinese online DRAMAS such as The Journey of Flower, Nirvana in Fire, The Ghost Blows out the Lamp, and The Tomb Raiders have attracted many nostalgic readers and avid readers. Since then, with the promotion of IP, excellent IP literature works have been continuously promoted to readers. According to the data of QQ Reading, the total number of people participating in the “2017 Book China” nationwide reading series activities reached 11.9 million, and the era of national reading driven by old and new readers is coming.

According to the national reading survey data released by The Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, the comprehensive reading rate of all media of Chinese adult citizens in 2016 was 79.9%, among which the contact rate of digital reading was 68.2% and the reading rate of books was 58.8%. With the continuous development of science and technology, e-readers are constantly iterating and updating. With the upgrading of science and technology, people are also inclined to mobile reading, and the experience of mobile reading to readers is nothing more than the following:

First, mobile e-readers can meet the needs of book lovers in different time and space. By using Internet technology to spread excellent literary works to readers, readers can break through the bondage of time and space and enjoy reading anytime and anywhere through e-readers.

Second, e-readers can protect readers’ physical health. The e-Ink screen of the e-reader can protect the reader’s eyesight while reading, and avoid the damage caused by the reflection of the screen. Lightweight e-books can reduce the injury to the cervical spine when readers enjoy reading, and even solve the burden and trouble caused by carrying a large number of books when users go on business trips, travel and move.

Thirdly, reading through e-books can effectively protect readers’ privacy. For most readers, reading is still a private affair. Through e-readers, users no longer worry about their annotations and notes in the process of reading being peeped by others, and enjoy reading in private space.

Mobile electronic books help book lovers to break the time and space barriers of traditional reading, and can protect the eyes just like traditional paper. The lightweight shell allows traditional readers to say no to the heavy weight, but also protects the reader’s neck and privacy issues. The era of mobile reading has brought huge user flow to e-paper books. Under the “temptation” of reading bonus, many giants have begun to expand their territory in the e-paper book market.

Reading bonus, the e-paper book market has fallen into winter

The era of mobile reading has arrived, but with the continuous increase of intelligent products, the fatigue of the traditional e-book industry has become increasingly obvious, coupled with the increasingly fierce competition in the industry, the huge reading flow did not let the e-book market see the spring, but made many industry giants enter the winter in advance.

Hanwang Science and Technology is one of the typical representatives. It once made Hanwang the first leader in the e-book industry by throwing everything at it. However, after twists and turns, Hanwang e-book has been suffering from “failures” since May 2011. The price of the products dropped from the highest price of 3,000 yuan per book to more than 500 yuan per book, and e-paper books became the main culprit for the fall of Hanwang. According to data released by Analysys in 2011, the sales volume of e-readers in China is still declining, reaching 295,200 units in the third quarter of 2011, down 5.1% from the previous quarter. Hanwang technology has never recovered.

That was when tablets hit the consumer market the hardest. The e-book industry has suffered a decline in sales and market value due to the impact of tablet computers led by the iPad. Before the advent of tablet computers, e-books could satisfy the majority of consumers who wanted to read but didn’t want to carry heavy books. But with the advent of tablet computers and new, more powerful features such as Internet entertainment and office space attracting consumers, the e-book industry began to decline.

Smartphones are more deadly to e-books than tablets. In 2012, e-book sales fell 36 percent from 23.2 million in 2011, and in 2016, the total market was just 7.1 million, according to Foresight. In the first 12 months of 2016, the domestic mobile phone market shipments reached 560 million units, up 8.0 percent year-on-year respectively. With the emergence of smart phones, most consumers begin to rely on this small “palm treasure”. From socializing, working to reading, the convenience and real-time connection of smart phones and the Internet are much richer than traditional e-paper books, and smart phones begin to become the main carrier to meet consumers’ reading needs.

In more light and convenient smart phones and more cost-effective products of tablets, single product function, imperfect industry chain and so on growing e-book industry seemed so vulnerable, combined with the technology limited, electric paper books at that time also is very difficult to transform, so the traditional paper book industry headed by hanwang technology in the winter.

Technological innovation, however, is a palliative, and the era of e-books may fade

As a matter of fact, many industry giants have been looking for ways of transformation since the e-book industry was cold. In the era of scientific and technological innovation, technological innovation has become the only life-saving straw for the transformation of e-book enterprises.

First of all, e-books are connected to the Internet. Through the technological innovation of e-books, wi-fi connection function is added, so that reading lovers can buy and download books in real time through the Internet. Secondly, the function of electromagnetic pen is added on the basis of traditional e-reader to meet the writing needs of users when reading. Thirdly, there is a breakthrough in screen size, from 6.7 inches to 9.7 inches, to the BOOX Max2’s 13.3 inches, which solves the problem of reading PDF text recognition and alleviates visual fatigue. Finally, restrictions on other entertainment apps can purify readers’ reading environment by limiting the use of entertainment software.

On the surface, however, the e-book business seems to be coming back from the dead after being polished by technology. But in fact, e-book readers are becoming a product of “four different things”.

In terms of screen innovation, the screen size of e-books has changed over the years, but one of the trends is becoming heavier. From 6.7 inches and 200 gigabytes, to 13.3 inches and 500 gigabytes, improving the user’s visual fatigue by enlarging the screen is not worth the cost. As weight and size increase, e-book books become less portable, which is why consumers increasingly rely on smartphones to read.

From the perspective of the added electromagnetic pen writing function, although smooth writing can be achieved on the ink screen, the ink screen has a low recognition of human skin, and the user’s response to the touch operation after the absence of the electromagnetic pen is slow, which affects user experience. At the same time, because of the ink screen produced splash screen problem has not been solved. In haier’s topsir, for example, some readers use topsir during reading, on average every four pages will appear a short black screen, while in motion diagram is used to turn pages, or slide page will appear black and white of snow screen, can appear even image residual, images and interface fonts mix duration for up to 3 seconds, and so on, Bad reading experience is wearing down users’ patience.

The e-book industry has not been consistent in its restrictions on entertainment apps. In the beginning, no entertainment software was allowed to carry readers, and in the end, music players were added, but the number of e-readers did not change. It has the opposite effect, driving users to smartphones and tablets that are easier to use and better to hear and hear…

In this view, the continuous decline of e-book users cannot be solved by user experience optimization to solve the superficial problems. In addition to the continuous emergence of reader alternatives, technological monopoly is also one of the reasons for the declining e-book industry. As the core components of e-paper books, e-paper and e-ink have been highly monopolized by foreign enterprises. Reader in the height of vertical industry chain on, domestic enterprises cannot grasp core technology, also won’t be able to reduce the cost or find better alternatives, and under preached constantly reading dividend market bubble, similar enterprises appear constantly, competition also tend to worse gradually, price war end shrinking profits, become the heart of e-book enterprise in China.

In a word, the speed of iteration and upgrading of mobile Internet products is accelerating, and more and more lightweight and intelligent mobile phones have become the main carrier for the public to read and charge in their spare time. The impact of various new products on e-books continues to intensify, but in the vertical field of reading, the core advantages of e-books have not been further strengthened. Electronic books may be the next generation to be discarded in the ever-growing trend of mobile reading.

Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110