Quote:
Originally Posted by wallcraft
I don't see this as competition, yet, for 6" dedicated Readers, but netbooks are already competition for EInk devices with ~10" screens and this would make that niche even more crowded. A 10" tablet is probably better already for displaying PDFs than the DR1000S (say), because zooming does not have to wait 0.7s for the screen to refresh, and a tablet is a general purpose computer that can do other stuff (at a minimum surf the web and send emails).
|
I don't really see how a tablet like this could be competition. A netbook
might be competition for a dedicated reader, either if you're talking about a Palm-sized device or the person in question is looking for a more versatile device. (Even then, I'd argue that those looking for a more versatile device wouldn't be looking at ereaders in the first place.) This tablet, though, if Apple follows its usual behavior, won't satisfy
any of the criteria for a worthwhile ereader.
1) It (probably?) won't have e-Ink.
2) It
will be relatively expensive. (This is Apple we're talking about. Count on that.)
3) For an ereader, it won't be as portable as a Kindle. (It might be as portable as that "Plastic" ereader we heard about a while ago, but IMO, that's not going to be portable enough for a reader.
Of course, if Apple markets such a thing, they probably won't try to sell it as a reader. It will probably be marketed as a tablet "done right". And it will probably sell some of them. (I would probably guess it would sell as well as the Macbook Air.) But I'd be really surprised if this reached anything approaching iPhone or iPod level.