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Originally Posted by JoeD
Does he not understand the attraction of most eReaders is that they're based on eInk which makes them much easier to read for prolongued amounts of time?
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I suspect he may, but I'm not sure it's relevant.
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Plenty of people who only want to read for 10 minutes or 1/2 hour would be perfectly happy reading on their smartphones, laptop or tablet but for those who enjoy spending hours at a time reading it's really hard to beat eInk (even though you can use a PDA for a long time, I used to too, but the eInk display is just so much easier on my eyes).
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I think the big question is just what the main appeal of dedicated eReaders is.
eInk screens get pointed to as an "easier on the eyes" major plus, but they also provide much better battery life, which is another major plus. And there are attractions to a device well designed to do one thing, with a minimal learning curve in figuring out how to use it.
Is the ease on the eyes of eInk screens the
only reason dedicated readers are popular? I doubt it.
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If the devices are transitional what is it that is going to replace them? We already have smartphones, netbooks, laptops and tablets. Unless laptop/tablet displays improved to work the same way as eInk for readability but had the refresh speeds and colour depth of a standard monitor and battery life is increased further, I don't see eReaders going anywhere.
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I think the chap from Forrester expects multi-function devices in similar form factors, that can do more than just display ebooks to move into and cannibalize that space. eInk is both blessing and curse there, as it has the advantages of better battery life and easier on the eyes reading, but does not currently support color, and would be hopeless for things like video.
If new technologies that retain eInk's advantages but provide better support for stuff like that are adopted, the landscape might change.
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Dennis