Quote:
Originally Posted by Slite
@ Bill: I think you are wrong in one of your assumptions, that people will be content to read books on their iphone/ipod touch. For starters, yes, it will be sufficent at first, but if you are "serious" about your reading, you will soon tire of concentrating on the small screen and look around for alternatives. And thats where the e-Ink devices comes in. But I do agree that the e-reading market is just in it's infancy and it needs to "mature" before it will be adopted by the large masses.
And before that happens we need a bit more development for the devices.
As in faster devices, even better screens (not necesarily bigger), and ease of use improved.
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Slite, I think you are correct that "serious" readers will not be content with iPod/iPhone reading. That being said, the crux of my argument is that I expect that the casual reader, not the serious reader to be the real force behind how the ebook market develops over the next few years.
The basic danger to the dedicated devices is that I expect that the vast majority of ebook purchasers will, in a few years want to do their reading on converged devices. the 3.5" iPhone or PDA screen might be too small for most of their reading, but a 5" or a 7" media/internet tablet might be just right. As it is, for someone who only occasionally reads a book, or who reads mostly when waiting for the bus, or other periods where they have a few minutes of downtime, might in fact be quite content with the smaller screen.
I like e-Ink, but frankly, for the cost, a converged device (i.e., a UMPC with a finger based interface and or some keys that could be configured to turn pages, search the book etc,) would be a better choice for me.
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Bill