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Originally Posted by brecklundin
Ummm...a few examples off the top of my head are: word processing software buried dedicated "word processing typewriter" type devices (which were on way to replace the venerable IBM Selectric typewriter because the WP models had spell check and limited ability to edit before the data was actually printed/typed on the page) back in the mid-80s to early 90s,
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Credit lower hardware costs for that.
At the bank I once worked for, in the 70's, we went from Selectrics to Qyx intelligent typewriters, to word processing on a DEC mini-computer to dedicated word processors like the IBM DisplayWriter.
Partway through my tenure, the IBM PC came in, displacing venerable Apple ][s which ran VisiCalc. The PCs ran Lotus 1,2,3, and I watched bank officers write memos as Lotus text cells because Lotus was what they knew how to use. But the PC was a multi-function device, so things like WordStar crept in and took over.
It happened because the PC hardware became cheap enough and powerful enough that a PC with Lotus 1,2,3 and WordStar was a significantly better investment than a dedicated word processor.
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PDA's replaced the electronic address book and then the multi-function cell phone or MID has replaced the PDA only not very successfully...and multi-function printer/xcanner/fax machines replaced three devices doing a very good job as a rule.
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Whether a PDA is not very successfully replaced by a smart phone depends on where you stand. I know lots of PDA users happy with the smartphones that replaced them.
I'm not one, due to form factor. We want cell phones tiny and light. That means small screens, and too much of what I do on a PDA makes me wish for a
bigger screen than I have.
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Ereading devices cannot continue to be on-trick-ponies at their current price point...drop them to $50-$99 and there is room for discussion but not at $200+
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Readers are a niche market item.
At $50-$99, they are an impulse purchase. But we aren't going to see them at that price anytime soon. A teardown of the Kindle discussed elsewhere on MR had the eInk display unit accounting for $60 of the cost. A $99 reader is possible, but not with an eInk display.
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I am in the camp of wanting a multi-function and/or open device that lets me choose what added functionality is installed on the reader...you know, just like a PDA...which millions of people still use daily even though their model is no longer made or supported.
BTW, a PDA actually IS a multi-function device already, these allegedly "smart" phones simply added a phone to the mix but at the expense of diluting some of the the other features of the PDA.
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My PDA is my reader, with software letting me read Plucker, Mobipocket, eReader, PDF, Word and text files. It fueled my desire for a standard format everyone would support, as having to maintain half dozen viewers and recall which book is in which format displayed by which viewer is a pain.
But aside from displaying ebooks, it has all of the standard PDA functions, plus does word processing, views/edits Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, plays MP3s and videos, displays photos, has half a dozen programming languages, can connect to the net...and oh, yes, it plays games.
I'd like a device that does what my PDA does, but with a larger screen. I couldn't carry it in a pocket, but I don't do that now.
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Dennis