Will One Device Rule Them All... Or Not

[patrickt]

I'm old so it probably doesn't matter to me and I don't matter to those who want one gizmo does it all. Pershonally, I prefer things that do one thing and do it exceedingly well. I can imagine a lot of improvements in ebooks which would still be books. How about an ebook where you could write notes or draw diagrams with a stylus?

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I don't think that any converged device will replace a dedicated e-reader for the 10% of the population who are hardcore readers. People who read *a lot* will demand the best experience.

I've edited for a living for about 20 years and read a lot for leisure as well. I became an editor because I spent my childhood reading. For me, e-ink offers no advantage. My Kindle, which I used extensively for 15 months, now sits unused.

I can respect that some readers will always prefer e-ink, so I don't presume to speak for them. But e-ink will survive only if it remains profitable for manufacturers, either directly or indirectly. (They can subsidize devices with book sales, for instance.) As tablets spread, there might be a tipping point when e-ink is no longer profitable enough for device makers. Costs include production, research, tech support and marketing. Someone has to pay for all of that. If the market for e-ink shrinks over time, or profit margins shrink because of pricing pressure, smaller manufacturers will have a harder time staying afloat.

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

I will agree that the modern phone OS is very capable, and usually very fast. However, the biggest limitation is actually the fact they can so easily lock them down. They can decide what applications you can or can’t install. They can easily determine what content you can or can’t get onto the device, and they can decide how the content is delivered. There are many other examples, but my point is that these limitations are designed-in, and are completely unacceptable. A full-blown OS device works like it should. You can copy/paste content at will, to/from the device. You can install software of your choice, from anywhere you decide to get it from.
The difference is simply this: either they decide for you, or you decide for yourself. I will decide for myself...

I'm enjoying the benefits of a full OS on my new phone...the nokia n900. The model itself is about a year old, but I bought mine a few weeks ago.

Before that I was using an Android Milestone, which is the original Droid made for Europe with a GSM SIM card slot so I could use it on TMobile. It's a beautiful phone, very sturdy and well made. I'm just sick of trying to work around the fact that Motorola locked down the firmware which makes it really hard to installl custom ROMs.

I bought the Nokia because it runs Maemo, which is a full Linux operating system. Out of the box, I can do whatever I want with this phone, and I have the benefits of decades of Linux development history to chose from.

It's actually a pretty good phone, too (which is *not* something you can say about every smartphone). The volume is nice and loud (as is the speaker phone) and I don't have much of an issue with dropped calls. It also has a fantastic built-in SIP package, so I can make free calls over 3G that don't use my cellular minutes.

It has an ebook reader, the full-featured version of FBReader. It even has a TTS program to read ebooks out loud. The voice quality isn't as good even as the Kindle, but I also haven't taken any time to fiddle with the settings.

The screen isn't bad for reading, although it's obviously much smaller than a Kindle . The screen is trans-reflective so it's usable in sunlight. I still prefer my Kindle, especially since there's no Kindle for Linux app.

But, walking around with a real (if small) personal computer in my pocket really increases my range of options.

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I'm old so it probably doesn't matter to me and I don't matter to those who want one gizmo does it all. Pershonally, I prefer things that do one thing and do it exceedingly well. I can imagine a lot of improvements in ebooks which would still be books. How about an ebook where you could write notes or draw diagrams with a stylus?

You're asking for features that are not found on a dedicated reader and this alone shows that even those who want things that do one thing well want more.

Chances are that you use a computer for a wide variety of uses never dreamed of in the early days ( I started in 1962)

I suspect dedicated ebook readers will go the way of typewriters, B&W TV, and at least 99.999% of all cell phones.

Readers today hold about the same position that dedicated word processors did in the early 80's. They were better than WordStar by a large margin (as I found out the hard way) but software can change and develop much faster.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Multifunction and converged devices generally do well in markets, specifically, because they provide more services to more people. This is why companies add features to devices, to make them appeal to more consumers.

Those who appreciate multi-use devices are also used to the idea that they may not be optimum for a specific task, but they get the job done. This has been true for electronics for as long as there were portable devices, is true today for smartphones especially, and will be for future multi-function devices. Many people read on these devices today, and are perfectly comfortable doing so, because they got used to whatever idiosyncrasies were required of the device, and now it is second nature to them. (Count me among that group.)

When a multifunction device or devices are a major part of the market (and are made well enough to be popular), they will crowd out single-function devices, and force them into smaller and smaller niches. This is what the dedicated readers can expect out of their future... like the small cellphone that is marketed as being good for "nothing but making a phone call," and sold in drug store racks and oddball catalogs like "Things You Never Knew Existed."

And you should expect the dedicated readers to start sprouting new features as well... essentially and eventually eliminating their "dedicated" status to an "optimized" status: Optimized for book reading, and other useful functions that the book reader wants.

And then there will be no "dedicated" readers at all.

[leebase]

Let's also not fall under the assumption that a dedicated device is necessarily better than a multiple function device. I love the new kindle commercials and yet, I truly wouldnt want to give up the advantages of my iPad for reading, even novels.

For my reading use cases, the iPad is better at reading than a dedicated reader. I dont sit in the sun to read. I already have an iPad for other things, so a dedicated einkorn reader represents an extra cost for next to no extra benefit - for my reading use cases.

When my iPad is too big to go with me, I have my iPhone and can switch back and forth and still keep my place. I have my iPhone for other reasons, so again, buying a dedicated reader is an extra cost.

Lee