Quote:
Originally Posted by pepak
Regarding "obsolete": I would very much like to know what's "obsolete" in, say, PRS-505. Which hardware component would you say is not enough for whatever's today's thing to have in a book-reading device?
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I guess, you might call obsolete everything that is not part of the current product line. PRS-505 may still work great, but some components in it are not up-to-date. FreeScale probably no longer manufactures the i.MXL chip developed when it was still part of Motorola; Vizplex screen is going away soon; so is Metronome e-Ink controller; the NAND flash is rather small by today's standards. The device hasn't been manufactured for more than a year, so even the newest PRS-505 are going to be out of warranty soon. I guess I would call it obsolete.
As far as FW updates are concerned, I am not sure what exactly is involved in changing over the version of Adobe SDK. Maybe a couple of days worth of work for a software developer. But the logistics of deployment probably make it not worth their time. You remember the 500 EPUB update - that was quite a disaster. If they issued an official update for 505, 300 and 600, out of every 5000 people updating there will be 100 people calling the customer service numbers with real and imagined problems. If the update screwed up their device, or they think it did, Sony is responsible. Sony is going to have to get those devices shipped into the service center, get them fixed or replace them with newer models. If you were a manager at Sony, would you want to spend your resources on that?
Perhaps if there was a major outcry over EPUB justification they would have to do something about it. If at every press-conference the reporters and bloggers were throwing this at them: "Why aren't EPUB right-justified? What are you going to do about it?". Then they might have done something about it. I suspect to 98% of their customers this is a non-issue.