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Old 09-06-2013, 09:15 AM   #65
Katsunami
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Posts: 6,111
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Device: KPW1, KA1
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS View Post
The Paperwhite (the first one) doesn't have expandable memory, has a 800 MHZ CPU processor instead of 1 GHz and is priced at $139 without ads. How were these good specs and price for 2012? Let me guess: the people who thought that it was great don't care about expandable memory, processor speed and don't mind the ads.
With regard to CPU speed and storage space, I think these are moot points for many people, and they certainly are to the manufacturers.

First, the CPU speed is only a marketing thing. They could have *easily* fitted a 1 GHz CPU into the KPW in 2012, and probably also in the Touch in 2011. The only reason they don't is so the next year, they can advertise by saying the reader got 25% faster. Next year (or the year after that), the CPU will be 1200 MHz, making the that Kindle another 20% faster (compared to the KPW2). It will have gained 50% speed compared to the Touch.

You can feel the speed increase when booting the device, when opening huge books, looking up words, or when using the device (menu's, and such), but you can't when reading books. There are people who are still using the Kindle 3 (or even the Kindle 2 / DGX), and they also work fine. (FYI: 532 MHz CPU.)

The point is, if Amazon wanted epic speed, NOW, and blow all other e-readers to kingdom come, they could have just stuck a 1.8 or 2.0 GHz CPU in there, along with maybe a battery a bit bigger to compensate for the extra power drain.

They don't, because in that case, they can't advertise with 200 MHz speed bumps for 5 or 6 years.

Same with internal memory.

First, it costs NOTHING. SD-Cards and controllers are practically free, and software (libraries) to control them is available as open source. Even when not providing an external slot, it would be easy enough to just have the internal memory be a flash card. Kobo did it. It's actually possible to crack open a Kobo and stick a 32 GB card in it. If I'd been them, I'd have used that as marketing: slide-off back, with a slot beneath to determine your own internal memory, and provide a replaceable battery to boot. What the frack if the e-reader becomes 1mm thicker to offer that. But noooo, "marketing" wants to be able to advertise with the fact that their reader is now 0.5mm thinner than others (VERY IMPORTANT if you're below the 10mm mark, or your reader will become impossible to handle!), and with the extra SD-Card slot. No matter that this arrangement splits up the memory and ditches the exchangeable battery...

Second, many people don't need to take their entire library of books with them. I can understand it on an MP3 player; it's entirely possible to say: "Now I want to hear this or that album" (or even one song), and be annoyed if it's not on there. It's not really possible to say: "Now I'm going to read this book", and 5 minutes later read another, and the next hour, read yet another. That would be quite useless. Also, you don't read books once every other day, as you can with regard to listening to a music album. Of course people will tell you: "But if I'm going on vacation, I may not know what to read so I want to take everything." Did you also do that 15 years ago? Did you also take 5000 paper books with you? In case you're afraid of not knowing what to read, just stuff 500 or 1000 books on the reader, and you'll be able to find something. Many people haven't even seen 500 or 1000 books in their entire life, outside a library.

Third, Amazon doesn't even want you to store books on the e-reader. It's just a device to read the book and then read another, preferably by buying it directly from the device, in their store. They'll be "nice" and save it in the cloud for you, so you can find it there, if you ever need it again. If they'd be completely honest though, they'd rather much have you read the book and then have it dissappear, leaving you to pay again if you wanted to read it again. They would, if they could get away with it.

It's not about the specifications; they are all just marketing. A company such as Amazon could create one reader to end all readers for the next 10 years, if they wanted to, but they don't. It's not good for marketing and keeping the people buying for 10 years. And the same goes for any other big technology company.

Last edited by Katsunami; 09-06-2013 at 09:52 AM.
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