Quote:
Originally Posted by GA Russell
I don't doubt that there will be units with lots of bells and whistles. However, I disagree with the first prediction. I think that there will be a market for devices which simply read. And I assume that a single-purpose device will be much less expensive than what you (ekaser) have in mind.
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I agree, there will probably always be "a simple reader", because those will be VERY cheap. But the functionality increase (as the hardware capabilities increase) will simply be TOO enticing for manufactures and many customers to resist, so the "high end" portion of the market (which may still only be a $50 to $100 dollar device, rather than a $20-$50 "only a reader" device, or may not) WILL become much more multi-function.
My main point with this post was: manufacturers need to start "opening up" right now, and supporting a common OS, etc, or it will be too late. Once the market develops far enough to attract the big fish, the OS will become MS Windows or Mac OS X. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, completely, but I'd much rather have a "zero cost" Linux OS as the tablet/reader platform, rather than another iteration where we have to pay $30 - $100 more for a proprietary OS instead.