Quote:
Originally Posted by phenomshel
I can think of lots of things. Color, for one. Pretty cases, covers, skins....
I love that I can customize the boot screen on the EZ Reader, I've got a very "girly" start up screen.
None of those things would be a deal breaker if it wasn't present, but having the option would be great.
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Dear Phenomshel:
Thank you. Now that we have the statistics from IDPF we know that women moved up from 40% of the eBook market to 50%. Of $96 BILLION spent worldwide on electronics, $55 Billion is spent by women... so they are even stronger in the overall category.
I am the most avid "pusher" of color bodies for eBook Devices. Unfortunately, management's bean counters find it easier to stick with black and white temporarily. Your email confirms what the women speakers at IDPF said... get devices in color. I agree with the pretty cases penchent too. Maybe fine grained leathers is not enough. We need to dress the cases up a bit further for women. Maybe rhinestones or birthstones might be a possibility. We are working with female publishers to delineate more ideas. SKINS are popular and I want that. There is a fine line between pretty and slightly tacky in accessories. I do not want to go too far and appear overboard but I do want to design for WOMEN as well as men.
Thank you for the word on customizing the boot screen. Perhaps you can tell other EZ Reader end users how to do that in a post. I think people would love to do that and are unaware.
I also wanted to update everybody that the new website (
www.goEZebook.com) is moving along well. That should open within two weeks. This will be a far more advanced site and will sell eBooks, accessories, and about 20,000 titles to start. We are working with Barnes & Noble to get as many titles as possible. The site is still under construction but we have seen the final draft and love it. The design is as beautiful as it is user friendly and the price on eBooks will be a refreshing break for those always hunting for a good price.
BY THE WAY... things have advanced enormously on adding both Fictionwise eReader (which more than tripled in popularity in 2008 according to IDPF) and Adobe Digital Editions. SO, expect these downloads to soon be offered for free on the new website. We paid the money for ADE and Fictionwise gave us a huge break as well. So, for EZ Reader and Mentor, we expect them as soon as the SDK is done and ported.
OH, we are also working on a new design of lighting for the devices! IDPF confirmed that 60% of people READ IN BED all the time. We have a split-beam light (non-tethered so it does not drain the device's battery) coming out in June. I am asking the accessory designers to go further and get rid of the bendable neck completely, so we will see.
By the way, if EZ Reader users want to customize their own boot-up screens as Shel did: go to the Jinke Website and download "Logo Maker". That will allow you to customize the boot-up screen. I am going to try it today myself and make sure that it is as easy as I was told it is. If I can do it, anybody can. I will post results.