Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
University and High School are different markets.
So are scientists.
The biggest of those is K-12, with 55 million student in the US alone.
For an idea of the opportunity and above all, challenges, of going after that market, check this out: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/tex...allenges/19733
As I said, the tech isn't there for the K-12 market at all. Those things need to be dirt cheap and mil-spec rugged to sell in volume.
For university and academic use (not just scientific) the tech isn't there either, but the problem is those customers need and want PC-grade functionality from a cellphone-derived device. And find even current large-format eink expensive (as per the O.P.).
The quickest path to a proper educational/academic reader device runs through the Win8 on Intel tabletPCs due Real-Soon-Now. Those will run the needed software but battery life and, above all, cost, will limit their use. The next best path is to wait on the tablet market to evolve a couple generations in hardware *and* software. And a couple more to lower the price. Might be 3-5 years, might be 10, depending on mobile display tech developments. (With Mirasol starting to acquire a fresh lemony scent, 10 might not be out of the question.)
As the ZDNet article points out, even Apple isn't going to make much of a dent any time soon.
As is, Microsoft partners have been selling TabletPCs with most of the functionality needed for academic use and few have been buying; the things sell by the million but mostly to the corporate market because of the price: ~US$1000. I have 2. Great tools. But cheap they're not.
It is not enough to have a mass of people that want something; they also have to be willing to pay enough for the product to justify the effort. The *theoretical* market for these devices is inmense but the actual market for the devices the tech can deliver *today* is tiny compared to its potential.
Today the tech can deliver an oversized eink fiction reader with simple/simplistic annotation features (no round-tripping or embedding of annotations, for starters) or a mediapad Tablet waiting for a full suite of suitable apps, both at prices beyonf what the potential market wants.
Even the Ectaco color reader is lightyears from what the market needs. And they at least have a glimmer of what is needed.
Either the potential market adjusts expectations and compromises or it waits.
I'd suggest: wait.
But it's going to be a long one. Maybe not even this decade. |
Great post. I agree with you totally that we are at a beginning here.
And I myself have advise people to wait and not to rush into buying half-developped devices.
But: I think things will develop rapidly, if other IT-sectors are any indicator at all.
As you point out, costs are a major limiting factor - the hope is that reduction of prices for textbooks(because becoming obsolete) will finance the hardware - and that is my hope too.
Only the future will tell ...