When are ebook readers going to become an essential enterprise tool?

[igorsk]

Law school reformers to consider Kindle, Sony.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I know what the question is asking, but in fact, businesses already have a portable enterprise tool that can replace paper... it's called a laptop. Computers are good multi-purpose tools which can, among other things, replace paper right now. And check out that modern desk... you'll notice that there is no more calculator. It's now inside the multi-purpose laptop. Check out my workstation... you don't find a lot of paper now. I've already essentially replaced paper with my PC and PDA.

I hate to say it, but in an atmosphere like that, e-book readers are simply not needed.

We may want to wonder when e-ink or some other eyeball-friendly display will become available for PCs and laptops. Unfortunately, businesses don't presently hear a lot of complaints about employee eyestrain... in fact, less than before with the switch to LCD screens. So I doubt an interest in new displays is on their radar at all.

When e-ink (which does use less power) gets full color, it will be more attractive to businesses as a display that cuts down their power bills, and we can expect to see a gradual phasing out of old screens with e-ink, just as PCDs phased out CRTs.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

tool that can replace paper... it's called a laptop. Computers are good multi-purpose tools which can, among other things, replace paper right now. And check out that modern desk... you'll notice that there is no more calculator.

Ha ha ha ha. Do you go into many offices these days? Well, at my office they do not give us all laptops. Most of us have desktops. Also, you will see stacks of paper all over the place including printed emails. We have filing cabinets lining the walls with all of our customer sales contracts. The world doesn't yet trust computers enough to go paperless. Also, there is no established standard (to my knowledge) for a digital signature to replace a wet signature. Until that is delt with paperless is a pipe dream.

BTW: I also have a calculator on my desk. I work on payroll software and it is much easier when I need to manually calculate a gross to net transaction to verify the system to grab the calculator than to bring up some virtual calculator.

Also, laptops are HEAVY! Yes... even the mobile ones. 5 lbs is alot to carry to a meeting and most in my office that do have laptops don't bring them to a meeting unless it is a day long meeting. They will print out the document or spread sheet or whatever and bring that.

And laptops battery life is awful. Most standard laptops get about 3 hours if your lucky with the WiFi on so people have to carry their charger too.

No, a device that is very light, can read documents comfortable, allow for easy searching and mark up (and be fast) will be very welcome. I think plastic logic's device is a step in the right direction, but page turns are still much slower than flipping through a stapled document.

BOb

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

We may want to wonder when e-ink or some other eyeball-friendly display will become available for PCs and laptops. Unfortunately, businesses don't presently hear a lot of complaints about employee eyestrain... in fact, less than before with the switch to LCD screens. So I doubt an interest in new displays is on their radar at all.

My former employer did a desktop refresh where everyone got upgraded to Win XP Pro and Office 2003, and new Dell flat screen monitors were part of the package, so display updates do occur.

When e-ink (which does use less power) gets full color, it will be more attractive to businesses as a display that cuts down their power bills, and we can expect to see a gradual phasing out of old screens with e-ink, just as PCDs phased out CRTs.

I'm not sure the power consumption reduction will be attractive enough to justify the investment. The payback period would be too long. Every PC manufacturer I'm aware of is currently full speed ahead on technologies to cut power use, but most approaches concentrate in power saving in the CPU. The faster you push the CPU, the more power it uses, and the hotter it runs, leading to secondary costs in the cooling required. It's particularly a factor in the data center, as servers shrink in size and more get crammed ito racks, requiring additional power lines and more A/C to keep it all cool.

And the color eInk prototype I heard about was 12 bit, which might do for ebook readers but won't do for a PC, and the refresh rate for eInk would be a killer. Can you imagine trying to view flash animation on an eInk screen?

I don't see eInk getting more than niche usage in corporate IT plans.
______
Dennis

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

PDAs are great for those who don't want to lug around laptops. As far as replacing paper... if PCs and laptops can't overcome office resistance, an ebook reader sure won't.

[nekokami]

The people I work with keep wanting to print out web pages to review and make corrections on them. Then they are surprised when the formatting of the printed pages doesn't match the screen.

These are some of the same people who hand me a PDF for a printed glossy brochure and tell me they want their web page to match it exactly....

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Like I said: The problem isn't with the technology; it's with the people. Laptops and PDAs are already capable of doing what you want. People just have to be willing to use them as real tools, and not as paperweights.