Quote:
Originally Posted by charmian
The Kindle DX costs $379, which is around the same price as some of the Android tablets (like the Asus Transformer) around that size. Given that e-ink readers have less powerful processors, less storage, no GPS or camera, etc., why is this so?
1) Large e-ink screens are much more expensive than LCD screens.
2) There isn't that much demand for large e-ink readers, so not many are produced, and lack of economies of scale keep prices high.
3) There isn't much competition in the large e-ink reader market, so prices remain high.
|
Basically it comes down to 2) - which leads to the question why demand is so low.
After having experimented with a couple of devices I have come to the conclusion that the two relevant companies in the field have no idea what they are doing.
So so hardware and lousy software.
There are two groups who could use these kind of devices, namely education and academia.
Education, that means textbooks - they are often in color, so the development is only about to start.
Academics have no use for the b/w readers because only the most basic software features are implemented.
Demand could be in the millions.
But for that to happen a major player has to enter the field - to hope that small niche companies can do the trick is just wishful thinking.