Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
http://cnettv.cnet.com/?tag=hdr;brandnav
On January 24th CNET TV posted a video predicting their top 5 doomed technologies:
5. Blu-ray
4. dedicated ereaders
3. 3D TV
2. Wireless HDMI
1. Wi-Fi in cars
CNET predicts that dedicated ereaders are a doomed technology and they will soon be over taken by tablets. "Readers, they're a niche for life."
 And here I was thinking of buying a Sony PRS-950. 
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CNET is good for technology news stories, but I don't trust their analysis. The editors are all (or almost all) Apple whores. Putting the e-readers on the list was just meant to put more wind in the iPad's sales (as if it needs it).
It's not that I think dedicated e-readers will always be with us. It's just that I think that illiteracy is being overestimated. The big argument in favor of dedicated readers going away is that people don't care enough about reading to want a separate device tailored for it. I think sales of the Kindle, Nook, and Sony readers are positive evidence that that's false.
I see one of three things happening: Either dedicated e-readers will become so cheap (< $100) that choosing between a tablet and an e-reader will be unnecessary, tablets will become so cheap ($150) that people will just swallow the LCD screen as "good enough" for the price, or else tablet screens will get color displays that have better reading properties (whether that means special glass or some form of eInk that can move as fast as an LCD display).
In the near term, I see e-readers getting cheap enough to where people won't have to choose. $140 for a Kindle, but if they can knock $50 off of that for the same experience, that will make it very hard for tablets to overtake them (I think).