Rise and Fall of the eReader

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I recently discovered that eInk isn't a great all weather device either. Try reading outdoors when it's -20 C and you'll discover that the screen doesn't refresh. Okay, it's an odd situation. But I'd rather flip pages with my mitts on in such weather than fumble around with flipping pages with a dead tree book.

Display technology still has a long ways to go.

Amateur astronomers (those of us who live in cold climates, at least), have been faced with the problem of poorly-functioning electronic equipment in sub-zero temperatures for many years. If you can find an astronomical magazine, such as "Sky and Telescope", in your local newsagent, you'll find in there ads for a variety of portable battery and chemical heating systems to solve the problem.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I recently discovered that eInk isn't a great all weather device either. Try reading outdoors when it's -20 C and you'll discover that the screen doesn't refresh. Okay, it's an odd situation. But I'd rather flip pages with my mitts on in such weather than fumble around with flipping pages with a dead tree book.

Display technology still has a long ways to go.

Yeap, i've noticed the effect of cold on e-ink screen.

[HomeInMyShoes]

-20C is way outside the suggested temperature range for most e-readers. I just wait for the bus to show up at that point and read paper on the bus at that point. I tend to house my e-reader between November and April because constant below 0 to above 0 conditions will eventually take a toll on it.

[Yapyap]

The market may be currently stabilising in English-language countries (where ebooks are now commonplace) and where a significant share for those into the idea of e-reading very likely already have an eInk reader which is only a generation or two old and therefore still very usable.

However, as far as I've gathered, ebooks are very much only starting to emerge properly in non-English language markets - even in some countries where they've been around for a couple of years, we're talking, what - 20-40,000 titles at best (French and German), compared to English where the number of books is easily 30-50 times that? And in other markets, we're talking about maybe having 500-1000 titles currently available.

That basically means that those markets haven't really had the ebook or e-reader awakening yet and are very far from saturation. Once the number of available titles becomes such that any potential reader will be able to browse and immediately see more than a handful of titles they might be interested in, the interest in e-readers in those markets should grow as well.

And I doubt everyone in the emerging e-reader markets will be going for multi-purpose devices / LCD screen devices. Some will, of course, but as with English-language markets, many people who read mainly fiction (and who are avid readers) would likely prefer eInk (and for many markets, it's also not insignificant that eInk devices tend to be cheaper than decent tablets).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

However, as far as I've gathered, ebooks are very much only starting to emerge properly in non-English language markets - even in some countries where they've been around for a couple of years, we're talking, what - 20-40,000 titles at best (French and German), compared to English where the number of books is easily 30-50 times that? And in other markets, we're talking about maybe having 500-1000 titles currently available.

That basically means that those markets haven't really had the ebook or e-reader awakening yet and are very far from saturation. Once the number of available titles becomes such that any potential reader will be able to browse and immediately see more than a handful of titles they might be interested in, the interest in e-readers in those markets should grow as well.

Yes, that's why I mentioned earlier in this thread the significance of Amazon opening a Kindle eBook store in Brazil. There are currently enormous markets for eBooks and readers which haven't been tapped.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by hughes

According to Ebook Readers: Device to Go the Way of Dinosaurs?, shipments of ereaders appear to have peaked in 2011.

Are the long-run reading advantages offered by ereaders insufficient to offset the web, email, and movie versatility offered by tablets?

Watch porn vs. read porn?
To me, it's a no-brainer!!

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

...
Color has triumphed over monochrome, in the marketplace, again and again. It did it in amateur -- and professional -- photography. It did it in television. It did it in computer monitors. It did it in PDA's. It did it in cell phones -- even the cheapest hand-held phones sold in developing countries now have a thoroughly unnecessary color screen. ....

I know. To get monochrome phones is getting harder by the day.
OTOH, to find good monochrome films and prints is just getting more expensive.

Originally Posted by BWinmill

... eink has too many advantages over the competition for moderate to heavy readers.

Who are too small a market to keep industry going...
People do not read. They check Facebook and online gossip, though...

Originally Posted by HarryT

... There are enormous areas of the world where ebook readers are NOT currently commonplace.

True.
The question is: when will those saturate?

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

If they ever stop making eInk readers, I'll be stocking up with a case of them as back ups.
....

Me too. Still, the lack of interchangeable battery and the too short lifetime of the display are major problems.



I put my dollar on a small number of niche expensive devices (they'll cost more than the future iPads), with pure white-pure black 256 levels foldable displays, removable batteries, large memories, strictly tied to one or more content providers.

[mahler9]

I chose to buy a Kindle Paperwhite instead of a tablet. The smartphone does everything a tablet does, admittedly with a smaller screen. But the phone isn't big enough for comfortable reading. I decided I just don't need a tablet at all

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yeap, i've noticed the effect of cold on e-ink screen.

I wonder if the fluid inside the capsules freezes? That could be bad if it expands and bursts the capsule walls. For sure, though, the battery will get feeble in the cold and not provide enough juice to run the device. I have the same problem with mp3 players in the cold (that, and static discharge on the headphones cable crashing the player).

[cfrizz]

I started with e-ink, I now have a SGP5 that goes with me everywhere and it fits in my pocket unlike my Sony PRS-T1 and since it is back lit I can read easily in dark subways, trolleys, & buses.

I also plan to get a 7" tablet, I just have to decide between Samsung & Nexus.

The 32gb Nexus is very tempting even though I don't like that it doesn't have a card slot. But I have found that with the operating system and other permanant feature on my 8gb SGP5 all I have left to play with is 5gb which if I didn't have the card slot is all used up with my music. So having a slot to put my music on a card is necessary. I guess what I want is a 32gb tablet WITH a card slot!

My Sony reader hasn't gotten much use since I got the SGP5, but that will change when the weather warms up and I want to sit outside and read.

I personally don't see this as an either/or situation that everyone keeps trying to make it. I can read easily on my reader/SGP5/PC without any problems at all. I just want to have as many possibilities available to me as I can get.

I refuse to entrench myself in only doing things one way. That way leads to obsolecense for me, nothing stops evolution so I'd rather evolve then get left behind being useless.

[Tarana]

Based on what I see, the markets may be addressing different groups entirely. I see WAY more ereaders held by middle aged and older people. Tablets seem to be more popular with the younger crowd.

No matter what, everything will be different in 5 years. That seems to be the way it goes. Sigh.

[Ripplinger]

I read outdoors almost daily in nice weather, even in winter I'll stop to read at times, which means I'll always be using an ereader with an e-ink screen. There's just no way in the world I could read from a tablet or cellphone, the direct sun just fades the screen to make it completely unreadable. If I didn't set distinctive ringtones for people who call me, I'd never be able to tell who it was on bright days.

Even if they get a bit pricier because there someday won't be so many of them, I'll still be purchasing ereaders.

[xendula]

I am like most of you here: I have had a tablet since the iPad 1 (and before that Pocket PCs, the Nokia "tablet", Windows smart phones) and now have the iPad 3, a Nexus 7, an iPod Touch 5th gen and various Android phones - I do not read on LCD. I read on my Kindles exclusively and this MAY only change, if they start making tablets with eink. I know plenty of people who are the same : own then latest tablets but read on eink, and I know one single person around me who reads on her Nook tablet and gave away her Nook 1 (an ugly device only a mother could love!!), so people who read a lot seem to favor eink.
The reason why I can't wait for rollable color eink displays is that while books today are black and white, if color eink became prevalent, novels could have nice graphical enhancements in color because, diffent from print books, they would not cost more to produce. I am thinking small things like the Chapter titles, maps in the front of books, etc.

[Laridae]

I like the idea of having a multi-use machine.
Why pay $100 for a dedicated e-reader when, for another $100-150 you can have e-mail and all the other apps available now and in the future in the app store?
To me it's a no-brainer. (I find reading on the backlit screen is acceptable for my moderate usage, but I can't argue whether it's as good as a reflective screen 'cause I've never had one)

And that's the reasoning that's brought me to buy three 7 inch tablets in the last 12 months!

Incidentally, when is MobileRead going to accept the rise of the tablet for reading and give them their due on this forum? It seems to me there's a conscious or unconscious bias here against backlit tablets as legitimate e-readers and I wonder if and when MR is ever going to come around?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Incidentally, when is MobileRead going to accept the rise of the tablet for reading and give them their due on this forum? It seems to me there's a conscious or unconscious bias here against backlit tablets as legitimate e-readers and I wonder if and when MR is ever going to come around?

"MobileRead" certainly doesn't have a bias one way or the other. We have forums for eInk devices and we have forums for tablets. If you think that individual MobileRead members have a preference for reading on eInk devices, perhaps that's simply because those people have found it to be a better reading experience? You'd need to ask them.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Why pay $100 for a dedicated e-reader when, for another $100-150 you can have e-mail and all the other apps available now and in the future in the app store?

Because it's an extra $100-$150, which means around 10 fewer books you can afford to buy. And just because you can afford $100 doesn't mean you can afford twice that or more.