Quote:
Originally Posted by por
Is this the economics thread or what 
The thing is, this product has critical bugs when it comes to usage scenarios that can really make the device stand out from all other devices on the market (like taking notes and annotating pdfs).
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In this way the device loses its advantage over other products on the market and can't really become a big commercial success. The unique usage scenarios are so buggy they can't really be relied upon. |
I disagree on two counts. First, that Onyx M92 doesn't stand out from other devices on the market. Second, that if the bugs are handled, it will become a big commercial success.
On the first point, as far as I know, the only competitors in this class are Pocketbook 912, Kindle DX and Ectaco JetBook. The Kindle DX has no annotation functions at all, as far as I know, and Ectaco's firmware is very rudimentary. The only real competitor is the Pocketbook. I've never used one, but from what I've read on the internet, it has its own problems when it comes to highlighting and annotations and the process is not very smooth. Besides, Onyx has better hardware (the Pocketbook has no Pearl screen, unless I am mistaken) and even if they are on par with the Pocketbook when it comes to notetaking, Onyx excels elswhere. So, its not perfect, but is better than the competitors. I should also say that I personally haven't had any problems whatsoever with highlighting and annotating. For the most part and for most users these features will work as expected.
Which brings me to the second point. Even if some users face some problems in some cases, they are not in the majority. And so we are talking about a small group in a niche market. Let's face it, even if all bugs are sorted out, Onyx will not see anything but a marginal increase in their sales. At least at the current prices. The majority of the people who read will not buy it anyway, because they read fiction and 6 inches are enough. The target group are academics and other professionals. And even among them many will be put off by the slower response and lack of colour of e-ink devices relative to that of LCD tablets. But this is limitation of the technology as a whole, not a problem of Onyx and its software. In my opinion if the price falls enough, it will entice some of those who go for tablets from the above mentioned group and also from others (e.g. comics and manga readers), but this will have to be a significant fall.
Which will most probably not happen. IMO prices of 6 inch readers are largely determined by the big players - Amazon, BN and Kobo - who sell them only slightly above cost (and maybe even at a loss?), as they don't rely on making profits from the devices themselves, but from sales of content. You can't have cross-subsidization of that kind when it comes to large readers simply because they don't go hand in hand with the market for content. I guess that this is why Amazon abandoned the DX - they saw no point in selling a device that doesn't guarantee them a subsequent stream of revenues.