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Originally Posted by big_stan
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Will the Sony Reader be the new iPod or Nomad for the eBook world? Or will it be another Newton, to far ahead of it's time to catch on?
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Hmm... someone said Newton? :-D
IMHO there is not much chaces that any e-item for reading book will win a real mainstream following, if with mainstream one mean non-tech reader. This have nothing to do with the quality of the ereader technology, but is something related to a mild form of feticism of the mainstream pbook reader. As we geek take pride in our gadgets, almost any non tech pbook reader I spoke, even recognizing the pratical value of the ebooks, said that s/he will never change the physical experience of using a pbook: the smell and the feeling of the paper, and so on.
Obviously I have only a very partial statistic: I'm in Italy, not exactly the spear head of new consumer tech adoption... ;-)
About the eInk vs LCD issue, I read from eReader by almost 12 years: I started with my first Newton (a Sharp ExpertPad...), passed trough the Newton MP 100/110/120/130/2000/2100, the RocketBook (still have it perfectly functioning, first model out... :-) and now use mainly a Clié nx80v for .txt and .pdb files and a iPaq 5450 for .lit stuff. I plan to excanghe the Clié for a Tungsten T3, but I will avoid for now any eink reader. Is not a question of prices: even if the ILiad price is crazy in my opinion, the Sony Reader is almost there. The point is that at the age of 45 a reader without the backlighting is useless for me.