Quote:
Originally Posted by junkyardwillie
Do I think eReaders will go away immediately, no but I think if Pixel Qi comes through with its pricing quotes of being in the range of netbooks today you won't be seeing a lot of news about eink readers next year as their recent 15 minutes of fame will be over.
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It immediately slams the door on the larger full-function devices, like the DR1000S, Plastic Logic and Kindle DX. At this size, particularly for business and student use, all you need is all-day battery life (8-10 hrs) and a reasonable weight. The reason that the Pixel Qi screens wins are a) color and b) complete compatibility with all existing software (with conventional screen refresh rates). The price difference between a multi-purpose device and a single purpose (or restricted purpose) device for this class of machine is virtually zero (for Linux) or ~$50-100 (for Windows XP and a bit more hardware).
For smaller devices, Pixel Qi can presumably make 5" and 7" screens too. Here a dedicated reading device might be a bit cheaper, but I can see multi-function tablets too. However, UMPC's have completely failed to catch on so far. This might just be a price issue though. If they were $250, perhaps many more people would buy one. PVI must currently be making good margins on the EInk screens, and it will be interesting to see how low the screen price can go if there are viable alternatives.