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Well,
First, the LCD is going to kill the life of the battery as compared to e-ink.
Second, ebooks are already easy to read - once the proper ebook application is installed - on the PC.
Third, the various SBCs out there are dirt cheap already, even the high-power versions of the ARM and XScale cpus. So coming up with a NEW design using a cheap but under-powered cpu makes no sense.
Fourth, and here's the killer, pre-formatting every 'page' to an 800x600 monochrome bitmap wastes space.
Further, I submit to you that it's not the cost of the ebook reader which is causing the problems. No, it's the insistence by so many publishers that each ebook be locked up with DRM to 'protect' each copy from 'pirates' and 'thieves'. You really need to read Eric Flint's essays on DRM to more fully understand this.
And if I had my druthers, I'd druther make a $10 flexible e-ink-based ebook which holds one and only one story because the $50 ebook reader is too expensive - for the 'feature set' which could be installed at that price. A $50 ebook reader would have no more features than the $10 flexible ebook I mentioned first but would cost five times as much. On the other hand, the $300-$450 ebook readers that are out there have far more features I, as a reader, want and can be used without difficulty to read a wide range of ebook formats - as well as have their software expanded and upgraded when improvements come along. Also, I'll be far more willing to take care of a $300, full-featured device than I would a $50 one because I would perceive it to have more 'value'.
JMO
Derek Benner
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