Quote:
Originally Posted by Alisa
I'm one of the geeks who would love to have a multifunction device that was great for web browsing, some light writing and for reading books but I can't see a netbook filling this need. I've met a few people who are fine reading entire books on LCD screens. Most read on devices smaller than a netbook which are easier to hold for long periods. Occasionally I see people who read on a larger LCD screen and are happy. From most of the comments I see here, it seems most of us find these screens unsuitable. Even though I sit at a computer all day, it's not the same as reading for hours without a break. When I'm working, my eyes leave the screen frequently. When I do have to stare at the screen for an hour straight, my eyes hurt. If you add to this the fact that a netbook weighs two to three times as much, generates a lot of heat and for all that still only gets you about half a day before you need to plug it in, it seems a poor substitute. Maybe these people really don't mind the downsides. It seems likely to me that for most of them it makes sense to them on the surface but either they don't usually read at length or they haven't actually tried reading an entire book that way. Sadly, lack of experience doesn't keep people from voicing opinions, especially on the interwebs.
I do think multifunction is the way it's going. On the bright side, you won't have to use it to browse the web or do anything besides read books if you don't want to, but a device that can do all that will appeal to a lot more people. Volume will likely mean lower prices and greater content availability for all of us.
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Yeah, I think a lot of the resistance to such things as LCD tablet devices here is two things.
1. It's an e-reader site so you have a lot of people who are very loyal to dedicated readers and e-ink technology.
2. Most here are avid readers who are reading for at least a few hours a day and often several hours a day. And they only think about what type of device they need/want.
In the mainstream, the fact is that avid readers are a niche, and an LCD screen is fine for people reading only ocassionally and seldom ever for more than an hour or two. And that dedicated readers would never sell to most people, as most people don't read enough books to warrant buying one (just like it would be silly for someone who hardly ever listened to music to buy an iPod).
So a multifunction tablet that happens to read books would sell much better since people would buy one for the things they do all the time--surf the net, watch movies, tv shows and videos, play games, use random apps (like on the iPhone etc.).
Personally, I'm all for it--especially Apple's rumored Tablet device since it would likely be able to use the kindle store like the iPhone/iPod Touch can. More people with access is a good thing as it expands the market, can increase sales, and encourage more publishers to get their books in an e-book format.
I may never buy one, since I like e-ink screens. But I could see myself getting a table with a good stylus interface to use for internet and reading/marking up PDFs of scholarly journal articles some day, while still having a small portable e-ink reader for my leisure reading. But even the latter I may could change my mind on as I seldom read for more than an hour or two, and I don't think LCD bothers me much. I sit at a PC for hours every day reading and writing and my eyes do fine.
I'm not really an avid reader by the standards here. I'm always reading something--so I read way more than most in my circle of friends/acquaintances. But I still generally only read for an hour or so before sleep a few nights a week. So I could probably get by with reading on some kind of LCD tablet as long as the battery life was reasonable (6-8 hours of continuous use would do me fine, but of course the longer the better).