Quote:
Originally Posted by brecklundin
If e-ink can ever overcome this one obstacle they just might have a chance in the longer term but if not they will be relegated to the niche of reading novels and similar books.
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That's where they are now. eInk is niche market technology, and will
remain niche market technology.
The advantages it brings to the table are the ability to read it outdoors, the vastly lower power consumption, resulting in improved battery life, and the fact that a fair number of users find eInk screens a lot easier to read than LCD displays.
What it lacks is true color support and screen refresh fast enough to handle moving images.
A friend who is a content producer recently got an iPad, and professed himself pleased with it. He calls it "a media consumption device", which I think is an apt descriptor. And it's a multimedia device. The content may be text, audio, still pictures, animation, video, or a combination of them. side from reading ebooks, the user is likely to be doing things surfing the web, listening to music, or watching YouTube.
Depending on the device, a dedicated eInk based reader will certainly display text, and may be able to surf the web and play audio. Animation and video simply won't be possible. The screen can't update fast enough.
iPads and similar products and dedicated readers share the fundamental characteristic of being portable. They are small/light enough you can largely carry them wherever you go and use them wherever you happen to be. The question will be what you want to use them
for.
I think my rule of thumb for which you might want to get is "Do you plan to watch YouTube to any extent?" If the answer is yes, you get an iPad or similar product. If the answer is no, a dedicated eInk reader might do for you.
But I don't see most folks getting (and carrying around)
both types of devices. So the unanswered question is "Will multimedia devices like the iPad cannibalize the market for dedicated readers", and leave the niche that prefers an eInk display too small to profitably address.
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Dennis