Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
There were two, and only two, reasons why e-Ink ever took off: the battery life is phenomenal, and it's really cool-looking if you like to read books
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The battery life thing is *huge.* The difference between 3-5 hours battery life, which has to be carefully allocated, and 10-15 hours like the Jetbook or iPad, is notable, but not overwhelming. The difference between those and "several days" is incredible.
It doesn't just mean "you can take your ebook camping." Not a lot of people care about reading on a camping trip. (Some do, but they're not a large market.) But there are a lot of people who have four hour plane trips, with two hours at the airport before that, followed by a 45-minute taxi trip to the hotel, an hour to shower & change before attending a three-hour business conference dinner with boring speakers. Not having to worry about running out of batteries is wonderful.
And while careful watching of one's battery life should cover that, for the better LCD devices, not having to be careful is *precious.* The e-ink readers mean you don't have to remember to plug the device in that first night; it'll still work on your lunch break tomorrow.
For soccer moms, they don't have to remember to take it out of the purse to charge it in the morning so it'll be ready in time for today's team practice. Nor again for tomorrow's. Unexpected trip to the doctor's office? Two hours' reading in the waiting room is covered. The convenience of *it always works, just like a book* is something none of the LCD devices offer yet.
I suspect that "cool looking paper-like display" draws people in, and then becomes irrelevant. As nice as good typography is, we do manage an awful lot of reading of pixelated fonts on message boards & blogs.