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Old 05-04-2009, 08:07 PM   #14
Zoot
Connoisseur
Zoot began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 89
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Device: Amazon Kindle
I think it will be most interesting to see what their pricing model looks like. If it's a $500 device then I wonder if there's a general market for it. But if they'll give you one for $200 and a 1-year NYT/WSJ subscription then that would be an easy decision.

I also think there's less money in the newspaper application at that screen size than there is in the textbook market where publishers drool over the idea of DRM-infested textbooks that can't be sold as used at the end of the semester (and which may even expire causing you to lose access to them after you graduate unless you pay an additional large fee). A good user interface with searchable textbooks and a good note-taking mechanism might make the trade-off worthwhile though.

Of course I'm currently reading an 8 pound textbook that is 11 x 8.9 x 2.3 inches in size that unfortunately would, I think, become pretty painful to read when scaled down to a 9.7" screen and would be much less valuable without the thousand or so color illustrations.

I worry that this coming generation of devices will still be too small (and low-res / B&W) to capture the newspaper or serious magazine market yet too large (and expensive) for general book reading, etc.

Z.
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