PVI revenues drop - weakening e-paper orders!

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

That's what bookstore cafes are made for

Very good points above though, and I am not saying that the Kindle is not useful in saving money, but most savings would be the same whatever ebook device you are using - and my impression was that the original post referred specifically to the Kindle since I saw other people extolling that Kindle saves money over say Sony 500 since you get to buy a bestseller for 10$ vs 12-15$ at Books on Board...

Regarding finishing books, I am not sure that having 3 chapters as samples helps, at least not in my case - since there are always many more books of interest to me than available time, and while sometimes I try to impose an austerity budget and buy only what I really, really will read next, it works for a week or two and then I still find myself buying the next 5 books of interest anyway, reading 3 and adding 2 to the growing to read pile...

I wasn't talking about Kindle savings vs. other readers. I was talking about Kindle vs. no reader. I only own a Kindle and I was talking about my personal experience. I may be less likely to buy in advance with the Kindle just because it's very quick and easy to get a book after I'm done with the sample but I don't know how big that difference would be with a different device. I still think they would give me a savings over my bookstore habit.

[tribble]

Originally Posted by seamusfp

1. Plastic Logic isn't likely to be competing head to head with PVI (at least at first). In Volume or Applications.
2. Plastic Logic, being a new technology with perceived benefits over glass tft's (and probably lower yields), is likely to be much more expensive and not price competitive with PVI.
3. Regardless of the drive electronics, the electrophoretic imaging film is coming from E Ink either way.

I wouldn't pin your hopes on Plastic Logic being able to introduce price competition for these displays.

I wouldnt be so sure about that. They use a very different production technique which is alot cheaper that what PVI does. And its competition nevertheless. So i hope you are wrong but it could be that you are right aswell.

[HarryT]

My concern about flexible screens is their durability. I'm definitely not going to be a "guinea pig" when it comes to this technology.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I wasn't talking about Kindle savings vs. other readers. I was talking about Kindle vs. no reader. I only own a Kindle and I was talking about my personal experience. I may be less likely to buy in advance with the Kindle just because it's very quick and easy to get a book after I'm done with the sample but I don't know how big that difference would be with a different device. I still think they would give me a savings over my bookstore habit.

I understood in the second post and as mentioned I completely agree that having an e-book device that works for you is very helpful including cost-wise. Though I do not think that cost savings by themselves justify buying a Kindle or whatever, but the many advantages of comfortably reading ebooks.

Since I got the Ebookwise about 3 years ago or so, I cannot imagine not having an e-book reader - now the 770 and the Sony work nicely for me, but I am always interested in what devices appear since the 770 is already getting tired after 2+ years of extensive use.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

I understood in the second post and as mentioned I completely agree that having an e-book device that works for you is very helpful including cost-wise. Though I do not think that cost savings by themselves justify buying a Kindle or whatever, but the many advantages of comfortably reading ebooks.

Absolutely. I'm glad I'm saving money but I didn't think I would. That was the point of my original post. When I made the decision to buy it, I thought of it as a luxury and didn't think that it would save me money at all. I figured I'd be lucky to break even but the convenience was worth a premium. With this economic climate, people might be more inclined to give it a shot if they thought they'd save money but it's not readily apparent that you will. At any rate, if the money is really tight for folks, the library and their friends' bookshelves are still a better bet.

[Nightwing]

Originally Posted by slayda

Look at the bright side of the "high cost of gas". Pbooks still have to be shipped, i.e. as gas prices go up, pbook prices must also go up. Ebook shipping, on the other hand doesn't need gas, just electrons & bits so their cost should remain constant.

Deffently. I have clients that are going ballistic on cost of a box of paper. Was about 19 last year and now even on sale at 29! And thats for the cheep stuff. Eat 1 to 2 box a months and have fun.

Have seen over the last few downturns that entrainment does not suffer. Esp games and movies etc. Sony and the others need to come at the problem of acceptance's at a different angle.

[chef]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The current batch of eink devices doesn't have good software to support the educational market. NONE of them will do. They would need to be at least 9.7" screen sized and the software would need to be considerably better in order to do what is needed to be done. So as it stands, even if the book were in some other format then PDF, they would still not work. The hardware for most is not good enough either. The iLiad while the closest so far doesn't even cut it. Battery life needs to be significantly increased. IMHO, I think the reader would need to be retooled from the ground up and then the software written to handle the new hardware and do it right. But that would take a lot of development time and I don't think anyone will be doing that any time soon.

Never thought I would see the day that WEEKS of battery life is not enough. Must demand more. How American.

[Taylor514ce]

I doubt that a device used for constant annotations, cross-referencing, note taking, etc. would get "weeks" of battery life. Please consider posts in context; JSWolf is speaking of the educational market, not of general novel reading, and nothing in his post is "American" vs. your own no doubt vastly superior culture.

I find your post ignorant and needlessly insulting.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by chef

Never thought I would see the day that WEEKS of battery life is not enough.

Weeks of life would be enough, but JSWolf is talking about the iLiad (10-15 hrs of battery life). The 9.7" Astak specs are for a "5000 screen refresh" battery life, but that is presumably with no WiFi and no stylus use. It will also have a 2100mAh battery, which is large for an E-Ink reader.

[radleyp]

Very interesting discussion, to which I will add my own observation. Most readers who own computers see no need for eink readers, since they can buy or download for free ebooks of all kinds and read them on a desktop or pda or phone. To them a screen is a screen: they have one on the computer and they see no need to try another, a pity to be sure, since you can't appreciate an eink screen unless you actually go to the trouble of using one.

[axel77]

Originally Posted by radleyp

Very interesting discussion, to which I will add my own observation. Most readers who own computers see no need for eink readers, since they can buy or download for free ebooks of all kinds and read them on a desktop or pda or phone. To them a screen is a screen: they have one on the computer and they see no need to try another, a pity to be sure, since you can't appreciate an eink screen unless you actually go to the trouble of using one.

I want to add. There are people who wished for a eInk screen for they laptop. Its currently not feasible, because of the refresh times, and current software doesn't cater for slow displays. But I got already people who when handed my iLiad, their first questions was: So you can read directly in the sun with it? Can I use it as external screen to my laptop?

[radleyp]

You need a backlit screen for phones and laptops. Eink for the moment is not backlit.

[axel77]

Originally Posted by radleyp

You need a backlit screen for phones and laptops.

Why? Because geeks are used to live in dark rooms?

[radleyp]

I think the answer should be pretty obvious: you often use a phone (or pda) where there is poor lighting (in a car or a hallway, for example), either to make a call or just check something in the calendar, so you need a backlight. Phones and pda's are not designed primarily for reading.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I think the answer should be pretty obvious: you often use a phone (or pda) where there is poor lighting (in a car or a hallway, for example), either to make a call or just check something in the calendar, so you need a backlight. Phones and pda's are not designed primarily for reading.

Most of the time when I use my phone, laptop or PDA, I have adequate lighting. When I want to use any of them outside (a frequent occurrence with my phone) it's actually quite hard to see the backlit screen. I'd rather have a reflective screen and more battery life for all of them and then have a little front light I could turn on just when I needed it.