Quote:
Originally Posted by griffonwing
Right. But even if they don't fix the firmware, you can use OpenInkPot, providing they have a version for your reader.
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As I understand it, OpenInkPot is currently designed for a reader with numeric buttons, so something like this or the Cybook could be hard to use having only cursors to get around menus.
If Interead are concentrating on getting this into supermarkets and other outlets, they aren't going to care too much about firmware and what the 'hardcore' ebook crowd think. So long as you can read your books it'll be good enough.
In answer to the other post I think the reason for the hard to press buttons is that though the electronic hardware is the same as the Cybook, the buttons are part of the case. The Cooler is not an industrial design exercise, it's a straightforward 'homage' to the iPod styling. The difference here is that the iPod will have gone through hundreds of design iterations to get it right, whereas the Cool-er will have been designed and tooled up in a few weeks.
It's a reasonable strategy - all of these choices have been made to get the device to the market quickly and at a good price. The problem is that Interead have not developed anything unique, so they're vulnerable to any of the third party no-name brands in Hong Kong and Taiwan taking the same Netronix hardware and banging out a 'Cool-ER clone'. Unless they have some sort of exclusivity license with Netronix, they could find their brand value lost in a few month's time by even cheaper copies, with similar styling and identical functionality. That is a big risk, as without the end-to-end chain from writer to reader the added value of 'yet another bookstore' is lost.
I have no idea what their business strategy is, but my feeling is that they are going to have to work very hard to differentiate their product and evolve it rapidly to keep ahead of the market. They've said as much in interviews, but the real test will be to see if they're capable of delivering incremental changes thoughout their offerings at the same time as introducing the products to new markets, promoting their service and servicing existing customers. That's a lot of balls to juggle.