[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Heh.

Dude: Retirees have something called leisure time! Why not play video games, listen to MP3s, watch videos, etc? Or did you really expect all retirees to just sit around in their wheelchairs and drool on each other? Assuming "older people" are somehow less likely to enjoy music, movies and literature than younger people is pretty silly. In fact, they probably enjoy those things a lot more than the younger generations, simply by virtue of having experienced so much more of it in their lifetimes, and therefore know so much more about quality media...

Sure....but they're not as tech savvy was my point. My parents are retired and only in their late 50's to early 60's and while they're into music, movies, reading etc., they're not into mp3 players, online stuff etc.

Some in that age group--and even older--certainly are. But you can't make any argument that older generations are a huge chunk of any tech market.

Especially when we're talking about complicated multifunction tablets that don't even exist yet.

Something simple to use like a Kindle has much more of an appeal in the older crowd, as the average age of Kindle owners shows.

The big picture (getting waaay back to the topic at hand) is that e-books aren't just for a few lucky and particularly sharp geeks... they're for anybody and everybody. In fact, they will be much easier for older people to enjoy than static, font- and size-locked printed text, and even a tablet PC will be lighter, smaller and easier to carry around than a copy of the Washington Post.

100% agree.

But a multi function tablet that does all kinds of stuff isn't going to appeal to the older crowd.

A simple to use Kindle certainly will--I think you mis-read my post. I'm saying the kind of multi-featured tablet I want--like the MS Courier concept videos etc.--won't appeal much to retiree's who are are put off by the complicated technology and don't need the work related functions etc.

I was saying dedicated readers will stick around because they are simple to use and appeal to people (of all ages) who just want to read on an small and easy to use device and have no interest in some complicated multi-function device.

No reasons for them to die off just because career focused people like me prefer multi-function devices that simply our lives.

My post was saying why I think dedicated readers will stick around even once swanky multi-function tablets are out and affordable. There's definitely a market for both, I don't see multi-function tablets killing off the need for dedicated readers, which you seemed to argue in your post.

The author was expressing the fact that he thinks it's okay to be a luddite... and if you want to be a luddite, that's your business. But the world moves on, and sometimes even luddites have to come around to the new way of things.

Agreed. But not many older people (say 50 and up) are going to come around to tablets. A lot can come around to simple e-readers like the Kindle for sure though.