Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
OK, so "real" tablets don't cost less than $500. Right now we have:
ereaders < web tablets < tablets & netbooks < laptops < desktops
The lines in between are going to get very blurry in time. But we do have a wide range of prices, sizes, features, and product quality. The question is: do we need one of each?  |
I don't think that progression quite reflects long-term market reality
Try this:
feature phone<smartphone<webpad<netbook/mediapad<laptop<tablet pc<desktop
All the above are multi-function devices based on cheap, responsive lcd displays intended for comunication, media consumption, and increasing content *creation* capabilties. That they can be used for ebook reading is a side-effect, not a mission statement.
Dedicated ebook readers come from a totally different direction.
Going back to the days of the Rocketbook, all successful ebook reader devices have been designed to be primarily and predominantly for displaying and *selling* recreational-reading books. Mostly fiction but to some extent "casual" non-fiction. That they can be used to some extent for educational and academic use is a side effect, not a mission statement. And that any can be used for games or apps is merely opportunistic window dressing.
People who wish ebook readers and webpads/mediapads had extensive content manipulation and creation capabilities, or more capable input/output are, wittingly or unwittingly, trying to reinvent the wheel. The device they want exists and has existed for the better part of a decade. Want a touch-capable device with a tablet form factor *and* a laptop quality keyboard? Done. Usb host? Done. Pdf display, annotation, creation? Done. Precise pen tracking and activation? Good enough for handwriting capture and/or recognition? With outdoor viewable color screens? Done. Done. Done. Optional, world-class TTS and voice recognition? Ditto.
Do a web search for Motion Computing, HP, Toshiba and/or Fujitsu tablet PCs. In sizes from 5 to 12 inch screens, they do all those "blue sky" iPad/webpad/reader "missing" features that are only missing because they are not part of the target market.
And the reason those features are not in those products and won't be in them any time soon is that there is no free lunch; to do them right you need a real computer with a full-power OS and app base, not a beefed up cellphone platform; you need a high power battery-eating CISC processor, lots of RAM and storage, you need an expensive transflective screen.
All of which comes at a price.
There are two different design philosophies at work here: tablets and webpads are designed to meet a price point and their capabilities are limited to what can be delivered with cellphone tech at the target price. TabletPCs (it's a trademark, BTW) start by packing in features and letting the price float to whatever the tech allows.
Now, affordability is also a feature.
And it is a big factor in deciding the "natural" size of the market; high capability/high price products need to justify their price by delivering value in line to their cost. So you don't buy a top of the line $3000 TabletPC to surf the web and play Angry Birds. You buy one as part of a medical system for hospitals. You don't but even the cheapest $800 TabletPC to read eboks but you do if you need to mark up, annotate, and edit documents or manuscripts for a living.
Similarly, you don't buy a $500 media-capable color tablet to read fiction if a $150 b&w eink reader can display the same book at least as well.
What makes ebook readers highly attractive to the maistream is they are cheaper, don't duplicate desktop/laptop feature, and they're the best there is at what they do, even if what they do isn't very pretty.
Plus, at today's prices, you can get a celphone, laptop, and a reader for the price of wjan iPad.
As to owning more than one, it really depends on need and budget.
Me, I've serially bought and still use one of each; a desktop PC, a TabletPC, a Netbook, an Android webpad, an eink reader (3 actually), plus a fully functional PDA, and a smartphone. Each has its strengths and its weaknesses, none is perfect.
Would I buy any of them again if it breaks?
The desktop for sure, the PB360 most likely (depends on what the K4 looks like).
The rest?
It's going to depend on what the market looks like in a year plus.
I want to see what Win8 and the new ULV Cores do for low end TabletPCs first.
The android webpad buy looks least likely right now. The ecosystem boasts some excellent apps but the underlying platform I've found underwhelming; I've seen similar hardware perform much better under other, more mature OSes.
Longer term, I want to see if color bistatic displays ever amount to anything or if LCD is all we'll ever see. Not holding my breath for the former, though.