Quote:
Originally Posted by ingmar
What's the difference, apart from (in most cases) the display? Yes, speech recognition would necessitate a microphone, and perhaps more processing power, but if my cell phone can do it I don't see why my ereader couldn't. Not sure how useful it would be for me, but it's definitely not unfeasible.
A better database, supporting multiple tags and search criteria, now that'd be something.
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Not unfeasible at all.
PocketPCs were doing it, and very well, on way older ARM processors than even the cheapest eink readers use. (200MHz ARM7's). But it's non-trivial tech.
The issue isn't the technical feasibility but rather the economic feasibility; can the marketting guys (who love long, fancy spec sheets) make a convincing business case to management that investing R&D staff resources and added hardware costs *will* result in enough new sales to justify the investment?
Voice recognition is an interesting feature to consider because the odds are good the next wave of Kindle FIREs due this fall will have it: Amazon already has the tech in their ARM-based FIRE TV STB, which runs a very similar OS as their tablets. But the hardware in that box is a lot more advanced than any eink device shipping: state of the art quad core with a highend GPU. And lots of RAM. In contrast, most eink SOCs run single core 1GHz or lower ARM architectures, with modest RAM. (And Amazon can easily defray the R&D costs because their volumes are higher and pockets deeper.)
If I had to bet I'd put the odds of their next tablets getting voice recognition at about 80% and the odds of the next PW getting it at under 5%. And that is just off the OS: the PWs don't run Mojito but rather a stripped-down Linux.
The fundamental issue here is not Amazon but rather the core value proposition that makes dedicated eink book readers a viable niche product: simplicity, light weight, and extreme battery life harnessed to provide a commercial book reading platform. Of those three, simplicity is the hardest to achieve and the easiest to mess up so it's easy to see why vendors are leery to go too far off the beaten path. As much as I love my old POCKETBOOK 360, simple is *not* the first thing that pops to mind when thinking of its features. Flexible, yes. Simple, no.
Kindles, on the other hand, start with simple and only grudgingly add complexity and are as likely to remove features as add them. And because Amazon *knows* a lot about how their devices are used it isn't easy to dismiss their decisions. Audio playback removed from their eink line? It added cost, competitors removed it first, and very likely relatively few people were buying Audio ebooks on them. So the feature added cost without bringing in added revenue and there was no competitive cost in removing it. Gone.
If you look at Amazon's reading devices over the past 3 years you can see a refinement of each product that indicates their market position and mission:
- Non-touch entry level reader, aimed primarily at newcomers and the cost-conscious
- Mid-range PW aimed at upgraders and avid readers
- entry-level Kindle Fire aimed at entry level buyers interested in color and media
- large format Kindle Fire 8.9 aimed at upgraders and specialty content readers
What is really missing? Only high-end eink devices. The message: either that eink is strictly for low cost devices or that Amazon doesn't think eink is more of a minus than a plus at the high end. That whatever sales they lose by giving up outdoor readability and extreme battery life they make up for with color, fast refresh, very high resolution, and the tablet features.
I would offer up the idea that Amazon simply isn't wedded to the idea that readers absolutely, positively have to use monochrome screens. Take the eink requirement off the table and look at the 8.9" FIRE models as reading devices and what do you see? Fast, responsive readers with high resolution color, excellent TTS, audioebook sync, great for comics and rich content ebooks. And open to optional epub support.
Price? Cheaper than most large format eink readers.
Battery life? 10-12 hours of continuous use instead of the 30-40 typical of the 6in eink models.
Weight? Comparable to the bigger eink devices, especially the color ones.
There are tradeoffs but not unreasonable ones. Not at those prices.
It can be a argued that Amazon does have a premium line of readers; it's just that they also serve as tablets.
Unless you absolutely positively have to have eink, their high end readers are worth looking into. (FBReader with sub-pixel addressing on is fantastic on a FIREHD 8.9) And if you absolutely can't stand LCDs (and the LCD Kindles use very high quality displays), well, they bought Liquavista for some reason...
And yes, voice commands are likely coming to those kindles.