Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
They have other revenue streams, some from LCD panels
|
Thanks for the information. I'm glad to hear this and this does give me some more hope. Playing devil's advocate here, its important to keep in mind what started this whole thread. B&N talking about selling off part of their business in hopes of not having one area of the company sink the area that actually shows potential. It would NOT be unusual for a larger corporation to split off and sell a division or even eliminate it entirely if it wasn't profitable. There are many examples of this. Look at Microsoft with their Zune player or the experience with Palm. Different circumstances and situations to be sure, but it does happen.
It's good to hear there are other companies involved in eink also.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Don't expect Eink readers to collapse; the category is to big to just vanish, no matter what multi-function fans might want to believe
|
I don't think multi-function fans really care if it collapses or not. The presence or absence of the eink reader has no impact on them. They are set and the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet make it clear that things are moving in a direction that supports what they want. I'm not even sure there is such a thing as multi-function "fans" who are really invested to believe one way or the other like you would have in Android vs. Apple. The battles there seem to me to be more along the lines do you want to see the future of hardware\content\apps\etc exist in a more open-source, competitive type space or more of a walled garden approach.
I think the most interesting effect will be amongst those people who are eink Kindle\Nook owners who have decided to "upgrade" to Kindle Fire\Nook Color. What type of impact do losing these types of readers make on the eink device sales long term? These are people who we can assume are dedicated enough readers to have purchased an eink device in the past, but are perfectly content with moving on to the color tablet devices. I'm sure there are people here on this forum who can speak to what motivated them on this decision. Obviously they have less eye strain concerns. Maybe they don't read for long periods of time?
In any case, I hope your predictions are correct and we will still have a choice for eink five or ten years down the road.