Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Certainly there there problems - whatever approach they took - but by starting heavy and whiz-bang they compounded their problems right at the start (size, compatibility/portability, expense, taste etc.), never giving smaller, simpler and cheaper solutions a chance (and which could then evolve). It's not unexpected that companies would try what they did at that time, but their approach automatically limited both their supply and their market. Software development has learned a lot about the advantages of evolution in that time (in some places at least).
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I definitely agree with what you're saying, but I'm very much uncertain if they could have followed a modern model back then and have had much success.
A few of your suggestions were certainly in the realm of possibility. Dedicated ereaders could have been created, and likely at the same price point. (Albeit, slightly bulkier and with different screen and battery technologies.) I'm fairly certain that manuscripts were digital back then, so the conversion process would have been trivial. So the smaller, simpler, cheaper philosophy was available.
On the other hand, I can't help thinking that it would have been incredibly risky. In order to reach your market back then, you'd have to box a bunch of floppies (or other physical media) and ship them to vendors since a fraction of computer users even had access to online services. That costs money. If it doesn't sell, that means losing lots of money.