Quote:
Originally Posted by markbot
i don't see why people are yapping about the apply tablet lcd. it's LCD! it's not going to have enough battery life and it isn't epaper. people will definitely not be buying the apple tablet in place of an ebook.
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No, something like that can't replace an e-book for an avid reader.
But it would probably sell like hotcakes, since the average person is much more apt to buy some multi-function multimedia tablet over an ereader since the average person doesn't read many books anymore and spends more time surfing the the net, watching movies/tv/videos, listening to music, playing games etc. etc.
People forget that this site full of readers who like tech gadgets is a niche minority in today's society. Especially if you focus on younger generations. So a tablet device that does all kinds of stuff, and also can read books, can really expand the e-book market beyond just the avid readers who aren't set on reading physical books--which is all they appeal to now.
It can't replace an e-ink reader for avid readers who need the battery life and easy on the eyes screen. But it would be fine as a reader for people who mainly buy it for the other features and will seldom ever be reading anything for more than an hour or two.
But in any case, we should be rooting for Apple to put out such a device--especially since it would probably use the Kindle store (like the iPhone/iPod touch already does). We may never buy the device as a reader, but if such a device takes off it will expand the market and get more publishers excited to put out ebooks, prices down and volume of sales increases etc. etc.
Though I could see myself eventually getting some kind of tablet device if it can display A4 PDFs close to full size and allow me to easily highlight and annotate them with a stylus since I currently print out scholarly articles to mark up. I'm kind of wedded to that (as I've outlined many times here), but a good tablet solution down the road could get me to change my mind.