Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It is almost without doubt the case that Sony have not implemented folder support because this is a device aimed at non computer-experts and many less-knowledgeable computer users get very confused by folders. Look at the typical home computer and you'll find that people tend (on a Windows machine) to put everything in the "My Documents" folder. Implementing folder support would probably have resulted in large numbers of support calls from people complaining that their books have "disappeared".
Companies like Sony spend lots of money doing market research; the way the Reader is the way it is (reading but not displaying folders) is very likely because that's what they found that people wanted.
The Reader is not alone in this; the CyBook Gen3, Kindle, Pocket PC devices - they all work in this way, showing the contents of folders in a "flat list". There has to be a good reason for that, given the massive amounts of money these companies spend on product testing and market research.
We (on MR) don't represent the typical user of these devices; they are aimed at the NON-expert.
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Oh I seriously doubt they didn't include it because "users would be confused". One word: iPod. There's millions of them, and 90% of them are used by people who do not know a great deal about computers. The iPod automatic meta data based sorting would be
awesome on the Reader, but I'll take folders any day.
And come on... users being confused by folders? Anyone who's buying a tech gadget like the Reader knows about folders... tech savvy is one thing, but understanding folders... my grandmother understands them, and she's 86.
Your problem is that you think that it's such an obvious feature (and it is!), there
must be same grand reason why they haven't included it. Sadly, that's not the way the world works. It's probably something trivial really...