1.
By any means, I am not a representative user of Mobileread population at all.
I see many people discuss touchy subject without losing their temper with admiration. I believe mobileread experience will be at least as pleasant as or better than anything you can get from any other site. And that is why I like to lurk and read here.
2.
I am sorry if my attitude was offensive to you. However, I would like to stop at some point since I would rather not discuss irrelevant details or follow unreasonable suggestion.
2.1
One thing is bringing up irrelevant details. I am not saying that all our discussions are irrelevant. What I mean by 'irrelevant detail' is something like this:
"Iliad price is not exactly double the price of Astak/Netronix".
It can be true or not. Even if it is true, as long as the Astak/Netronix price is lower than Iliad, it does not affect my main claim that 'some people are better off waiting' at all. We can argue about this until the end of the world, and the result will not affect my claim unless you find some evidence that Astak/Netronix will be MORE expensive in terms of price/performance ratio than Iliad. And I highly doubt it will be the case. A
exact price ratio involving future product is, I think, irrelevant detail and I think discussing it is a complete waste of time. So I would rather not discuss such things from now on.
2.2.
In addition, you seems to think that I should state my subjective probability explicitly if I am not completely sure instead of expressing it indirectly in my suggestion.
I am sorry but it is plainly ridiculous. I have no willingness to continue discussion with such requirement. (Makes me think of asking a person to swim with hands tied to his back).
3.
Judging from your last post, now we seem to think quite similarly except for minor points (or we did not realize it before).
Quote:
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Instead of assessing probabilities of future device to decide if you want to buy something now: if you currently can't afford one without having a painful hit on your budget, of course do not buy one, ragardless of what you think might come or not. If you want a new gadget to play with and you can affort it, buy one now.
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I don't disagree with your argument here, but I think you are still missing some types of consumers. Let us classify people into three groups with respect to their disposable money and willingness to wait
A) Enough money, decide to buy Iliad right now
B) Enough money, decide to wait for a future product
C) Not enough money, have no choice but to wait for a future product
You seem to think A) and C) are the only possible cases. I argue that there are people who will fall in B) category.
Whether some people will belong to A) or B), it depends on many factors such as
- valuation of using the each product (screen size, price, open system, ...)
- subjective probability of future product coming to the market
- how you value your future and current experience.
Depending on such factors, some people are better off waiting and that is my point.
4.
From your post, you seem to value the current experience much more than any potential future experience. If it is the case, you are right to buy a product available right now. However, using the product right now is not the supreme experience that is beyond comparison or trade-off at least for some people. People have managed to live without e-ink reader and most people will continue to do so for a longer time than we mobilereader users may expect.
5.
The reason I brought up the topic of economic user is that you seem to imply
"People should purchase a currently available one. If not, they cannot get one indefinitely when products are constantly innovating. (Refer to your post at #24)." I already refuted your argument in my previous post by showing that some people can wait and end up buying something in the future. So I will not discuss it any further.
6.
Overall, I think some people are better off waiting while some others are better off buying. By waiting, they may get better / bigger screen at lower price. This is more true since some probable future alternatives are competing to reach the market. I just do not agree with your unconditional suggestion like 'buy it now, if you can afford it'.