Quote:
Originally Posted by David Derrico
I say better to answer some questions -- even if a few are silly -- and educate someone about e-readers than be snippy or refuse to answer and turn someone off to the entire eBook universe. The more people reading eBooks and the more purchasers of e-readers, the better the final products will be as more money is thrown at the technology.
I'm always glad to answer questions. In fact, the main people I've been educating are people who got e-readers recently as gifts and don't really know what to do with them. "Oh, I can get free eBooks? There's a built-in dictionary? The battery lasts for HOW long?" Etc.
|
I agree with this. To most people, ebooks readers are still fairly new type of device and many people are probably not aware of the advances that have taken place in the technology. What may seem to be a dumb question may simply be a question from someone not familiar with the technology.
In some ways I can compare the current generation of e-ink ebook readers to the first Walkman cassette players. When the first Walkman was proposed, one of the pre-conceptions it had to overcome was that a tape playback device also had to be able to record. To those industry, that was simply the way it was and no one would want a device that just played cassettes.
The Cassette Walkman proved that this was not the case, and it became a very successful product. In turn, it led to an entire industry based on portable personal audio players which continues to this day with players like the iPod.
When it comes to ebooks, we are still at a fairly early stage of development. As far as generations go, I'm guessing that we are at the third generation of ebook readers. I break down the generations as follows (please feel free to correct me):
- First Generation: Software for reading ebooks on personal computers, including word processing software. This generation is basically non-portable except for laptops and ebooks printed on paper.
- Second Generation: The first portable ebook readers, including PDAs and some LCD-based ebook readers. With this generation, while portable, battery life is a significant factor in the usability of ebook readers.
- Third Generation: The current e-ink ebook readers. With this generation, battery life is a much less of a factor than with the second generation. Also, this is the generation where a unification of ebook formats began.
I'm always glad to answer questions about ebooks and ebook readers. I enjoy helping people learn about ebooks.