Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
With the new Nook and Kobo touchscreen readers, I'm concerned that we're going to look back and decide that ereaders peaked in their development with the previous generation.
Are we now in a race to the bottom, where features like physical page turn buttons disappear (as in the Kobo, not yet in the Nook) in favor of a bunch of hoo-hah like finger swiping to turn a page that doesn't even exist?
Will quality of construction suffer in that race to be the cheapest?
I saw this happen with VHS recorders back in the day, where prices went down and so did picture quality until I found myself longing for my old, heavy machine that actually delivered a decent picture.
Maybe I should be stocking up on K3's.
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I do think that the technology behind our eink screens will improve as well as the processors in eink readers, I wouldn't be surprised if construction suffered. My Sony PRS-505 is built like a tank, and reminds me of my Sony Betamax, which quite possibly still works (it did the last time I checked, which was admittedly a while ago). My Sony PRS-350 on the other hand (a newer model than my other Sony) is quite solidly built, but doesn't feel as solid as my older model. I don't particularly mind - after all, I am carrying it around in my purse and am happy with the lessened weight of it. I wouldn't want sellers to skimp on features in a race to make their devices cheaper, however. I will happily pay more for what I feel is a better devices (for my purposes).
My first DVD player has been going strong for 10 years (my parents still use it). My second DVD player lasted for around two years before kicking the bucket.