Electronic distribution of digital encoded information has gained in importance with the proliferation of personal computers, and has undergone a tremendous upsurge in popularity as the Internet has become widely available. With the widespread use of the Internet, it has become possible to distribute large, coherent units of information, such as books, using electronic technologies. Books and other printed content distributed using electronic technologies are commonly referred to as electronic books (“eBooks”). Various entities make eBooks available for download over ordinary network connections, such as broadband and dialup connections.
Typical electronic reader devices attempt to mimic the experience of reading a conventional paper book or other printed works through display of electronic information on one or more electronic displays. Digital works are structured as virtual frames presented on a display device, and a user may turn or change from one virtual frame or “page” of electronic content to another. The term “page” as used herein refers to a collection of content that is presented at one time on a display. Thus, “pages” as described herein are not fixed permanently, and may be redefined or repaginated based on variances in display conditions, such as screen size, font type or size, margins, line spacing, resolution, or the like. A typical electronic reader device is a handheld digital device having a liquid crystal display panel, having enough memory and having processing capability to store several eBooks. EBooks may be displayed and read on a variety of different display devices, such as computer monitors, portable digital assistants (PDAs), pocket personal computers (PCs), and specialized eBook reader devices, for example. Such devices are capable of retrieving and displaying an eBook or portion of an eBook such as a page for reading.
There are some advantages to using an electronic reader device over conventional paper books or other printed works. An electronic reader device is often capable of storing a number of complete unabridged works. Therefore, an electronic reader device containing a number of stored printed works weighs significantly less than the same number of printed works. This makes an electronic reader device a particularly attractive alternative to printed works for travel, educational purposes, and professional business use. Also, because electronic reader devices do not require the use of paper products, they are generally offered at a lower price than their printed counterparts. Furthermore, the use of electronic reader devices in conjunction with printed works may be beneficial to the ecosystem, by reducing a number of books produced using paper products.
To date, however, electronic reader devices and the use of electronic reader device in general have not achieved widespread consumer acceptance. This is mainly attributable to the design and implementation particulars of conventional electronic reader devices.
For instance, lack of instant availability of new content may be one reason the use of conventional electronic reader devices has not gained widespread popularity. When a user attempts to obtain content using an electronic reader device, the user may have to wait for the electronic reader device to log onto a network, purchase the new content, download the new content for the electronic reader device and finally launch an application to display the content. Retrieval of content may require time which degrades the electronic reader device user experience.
Another attribute that has limited electronic reader device acceptance are that limitations on power consumption particularly limit and affect the use of an electronic reader device. Internal components of the electronic reader device may require increased energy to facilitate retrieval and transfer of eBook content from a server for subsequent display of the electronic reader device. These operations may often reduce battery life.
Further, the electronic reader device may use wireless networks to retrieve content. The use of bandwidth to retrieve new content may be costly especially during peak hours. Thus the download of eBook content may increase the cost of the content thereby reducing the widespread consumer acceptance of electronic reader devices.
The preceding description of various disadvantages of conventional electronic reader devices was provided herein for contextual reasons only.