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Originally Posted by Sonist
If you don't like your e-reader, fine. Most users apparently like theirs. Sales are increasing rapidly enough, to merit notice, and to send agents and publishers on the war-path over e-rights.
You keep making statements about what YOU need (cheap, color, movies, annotations, etc)...
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Last I'll reply to you on these as we are
for sure.
I love my ereader. And I agree it will be a big success in a niche market and make big bucks for Amazon and other companies.
You just seem convinced that ereaders that are just like the Kindle or Sony 505 are going to take off and be owned by as many people that own iPods or other types of mp3 players.
That's just not going to happen. Too few people are avid readers that read enough to warrant owning one. Most everyone (especially in say the 30 and under generations) listens to music enough to want an mp3 player.
Also some people on the last page were saying this is tied to class and education. Not really. I'm finishing a Ph D this semester--all of my friends and acquaintances have master's or Ph D's (or are close to getting one or the other). Only 3 or 4 I can think of (out of say 30 people) are anything like what I'd call an avid leisure reader. And this is among highly educated younger folk who are big into tech gadgets.
I'm the only one that has an ereader, but every single one of them has at least one mp3 player. I've showed my ereader to several of them, the non-readers thought it was neat but overpriced since they don't read much. The 2 avid readers who've seen it said they thought it was cool but they wouldn't like as they love curling up with a "real" book.
So yes, I see it as a niche item, albeit a large and profitable niche that isn't going anywhere. I don't see it ever being like an mp3 player where everyone I know will own one or more of them. Now this is where the multifunction device comes in...
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You keep making statements about what YOU need (cheap, color, movies, annotations, etc)...
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I don't need that stuff--wouldn't have bought a Kindle 1 otherwise.
What I'm saying is something like that is how you may get a device that's a good ereader in the hands of non-avid readers. They buy it for the other features, and maybe by an ebook every once in a while just like they may buy a best seller once or twice a year currently. The iPhone doesn't count as it's not good to read on--or do much of anything on IMO, as the screen is too small and the touch interface not ideal for typing etc.
Same with the people wedded to "real" books. Some are too stubborn to ever buy something like a kindle. But if they're e-ink tablet PC or whatever the device is does ebooks and comes with samples maybe some will be swayed.
So I'm just saying a device like that would open the doors to a bigger market than a pure ebook reader which of course can only sell to avid readers.
But sure, I'd like something like that. It would be great for travel--but we're a long ways off probably from having something that can do all that stuff and have a screen that's great for reading like e-ink is.