What else is Bezos going to say? He had his bluff called by Hearst & Sony and was forced to announce offically a large format reader way before they even have FCC approval (another thread around here somewhere). Now he cannot very well announce another reader in under a year. We will have ereading devices within the next 6-9 months with a solid 20ish hrs battery life and within the next 12-18 months there will be color epaper that rivals current eink displays that will be available in commercial quantities. Once the design and production infrastructure is set the readers will be produced quickly. And we should not discount the OLED displays, though they have longevity concerns still.
Something interesting in that link are the comments. You can tell several who claim to own and use an eink based reader probably have never even been in the same building as one. There is on post exclaiming they "crisp black and crisp white background" are perfect...I have yet to see any eink based display that is close to white under other than the best brightest lighting. Most of us do not read in idea conditions.
I am also amazed at the venom spat toward a device just for reading...I imagine the same people think nothing if a $300-$500 MP3 player, $600 phone, $200 BT headset, $300 set of Etymotic ear buds and a couple grand/yr on music as well as a $5000 investment in video game players and games every couple years. We each have our pleasures, a shame so many are so vocal against anything connected with learning and understanding. All we folks want to do is read in the most relaxing way we can...
Weird too how some cannot see there will always be a place for greyscale readers as well as color. To be honest I have only two reasons I want color, one is to be able to adjust the background color to what works for my eyes in a particular lighting condition and the other is to carry around a device to display photographs...even those online. That is the extent of my current visions of wanting color in a reader. They can leave the ability to play video to those devices which already to a great job in that area.
Eventually a much more multifunction device will come along...
Though how fun would it be to see the old Speed Racer Anime we watched every Saturday AM as kids (when they were new) on an ereading device? The frame rate was slow enough that it might even be possible with the current Epson controllers....
