Quote:
Originally Posted by brudigia
I would like to support griffonwing request. Outisde USA wireless, at least right now, is not a very high selling point. What is the use, after all ? Buying and downloading ebooks ? Then a wireless add on could be a very expensive solution to replace a PC, which you normally already own and the old trusted USB. There could be a market in the EU for a basic - nofrills device. Personally, I think that right now these possible options, wireless and touch screen do not really improve anything. A device with those options will become more akin to a netpc and end up competing with them (and lose, pricewise). Whereas a 9.7" rightly priced .....uuuhmmm.
Cheers.
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That was one of the reasons I was considering when mentioning that the mobile wireless be a modular thing. You know either a USB dongle or a simple card that can be slid into a slot on the device. If a card based solution is the path chosen it actually makes the device more expensive is one does not already have a card. And I am not meaning a SIM card because I don't feel people who will never use the wireless feature should pay for hardware they'll never use. Rather I mean a Cardbus or a PC-Express card slot. I think the idea solution is still a USB dongle as they can be found cheaply these days. The cards, for some reason, are still quite artificially high. Of course that is what happens to a device when the target buyer is either a business or the employee of a business who is not paying for the thing.
The whole wireless thing is a shame really. By this point in time it should be as transparent as breathing. Yet, because of a variety of reasons it is not only impossibly expensive, it also so restrictive as to be almost useless when compared to what could actually be done with it right now.
That's why I am squarely on the fence. On one hand I like the convenience it represents, on the other I do not like the complexity it adds. for those two reasons if wireless of some kind must be in a device, wifi might be a better choice but, honestly I would likely never use wifi near as much as MBB.
A device released for the US market that includes MBB would work since the Kindle has done an amazing bit of black magic there. I never would have thought it would be the success it is today. But, how to you herd all the non-Amazon companies selling ebooks into a collective store where they all get along well enough to create a bookstore that is usable on a reader device? Plus there is now the relationship between Sony + B&N and who knows what proprietary locked in device they will bring out to really cause a divide in the universe?
EDIT: I think I have what would make me want wireless. I would want it ONLY if it gave me the same capabilities & convenience as Whispernet. Otherwise, good old "sneaker net" to move files will be just fine. The thing about Whispernet is it really does let someone who has pretty much no clue about computers, buy ebooks and read them in as transparent a process as you could hope for. I think that's the prime reason for it in a device. Face it if we all want the prices to drop and more ebooks to be published these devices need to be in the hands of as many folks as possible. The current requirement to have a reasonably up to date computer in order to aquire books then transefer them to the reader is not going to work for the gazillion folks who really are lucky to find the power switch and that handy cup holder.