Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetmolm
Adriaan's point is not about whether the extra features may be useful to someone else or whether they can be ignored, but that he does not want to pay for features he does not need. And I agree with him. But then, we're both Dutch, you know  |
Indeed. I don't think that that extra software (dictionary, text to speech) costs a significant amount of money, maybe a couple of Euro's extra per reader.
I'm whondering though how much extra you pay for these fancy technological feautures. Suppose I could buy exactly the same reader without a keyboard, accellerometer (but of course the same function with a button) and speakers than I wouldn't hesitate for a second which one to buy. With regard to that keyboard: I wouldn't mind to make notes on my PC/laptop and regularly upload a new copy to my reader.
I guess that there is a market for these kind of readers but that that market isn't large enough yet. Once the technology improves (color, maybe lighter weight and thinner) and the prices drop (because the investments have been earned back) you should get more competetion for the larger screens and only then it pays off for those companies to serve more kinds of customers. Now they can choose to sell one model with al those extra features, the people who like (gadget´freaks`) or need (poor vision) those extra features will also buy it, most customers who don't want and need those features will tolerate it since they have the choice between not buying any largescreen reader or one with these extra features.
I could spare quite some money by not having to buy certain books and just use a reader like that. I don't mind paying something like 40 Euro's for a good book but there are books (calculus for example) which cost close to €150 (7th edition also in this case with few changes), that gets ridiculous. I'd rather download some books and if I have some money to spare buy some other books which I officialy don't need for my study but which are very interesting.