Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
I can see that there would be a market for a color e-ink reader but I don't know that they will be able to produce one that is priced at a point that people will buy it.
There is a need for a larger e-ink reader for PDF's but the companies who have developed them, Jetbook, Pocketbook, and Amazon have not been able to generate enough interest at the higher price point in order to build enough demand to drive down the cost of building the devices. So people go looking for the larger e-ink reader, find them, go "Wow for that price I could buy Tablet X", complain about the limitations, and most end up buying Tablet X.
I think that color e-ink will be the same way.
In 2007, Sony could charge $500 for a Sony 500 and Amazon could charge $400 for a K1. The devices were new, netbooks were ok for reading but ackward, so the idea of a device for reading alone that could be held in the hand easily and was light weight was cool. It was worth the money to enough folks that demand started to rise, the cost of the components started to drop, the device price started to drop and the K2 and *50's came out at lower prices. The demand increased, the prices dropped more and then came the K3 and the T1 priced under $200 and people were wowed.
Will people willingly pay in the $300 range for a color e-ink screen when they are first released when they can get a tablet that shows color, has a larger screen, and is multi-purpose for less then that? The first wave of color e-ink screens are going to include the cost of research and development and are probably going to have to be more expensive then the e-readers are today.
I am guessing on the price point but the closer a color e-ink screen gets to the cost of a Fire, Vox, or Nook tablet the fewer that will sell.
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Well, a color e-ink with full Android and a reasonable refresh rate could beat a tablet at any kind of reading. Web pages, magazines, newspapers, and books. LCDs would only be better for video and gaming. I sure would be willing to pay well for that. And Mirasol has the potential to completely replace LCDs. Sure we love color, but a lot of us just hate reading on LCD tablets.