Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
Apple fandom never ceases to amuse me.
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Believe it or not, I'm actually a bit bummed about this announcement today, because it will instantly kill off the commercial viability of most e-ink readers, and I do prefer to read e-ink. The problem going forward, however, is that any e-ink device priced over $200 is just DOA at this point. No one except for e-ink fanatics would buy one, and there aren't enough fanatics around to sustain a business model for anyone except for perhaps Amazon. And since they have the Kindle app on the iPhone which will presumably work just as well on the iPad, I can't even see Amazon continuing the development of the Kindle. If Apple had priced the iPad at $999 instead of $499, we'd have a different situation. At $499, most e-ink business models just got totally hosed. Not because the iPad is a better reading device per se, but because of everything else it does as well, and the reading experience on it is going to be good enough for the vast majority of consumers such that no viable business market is going to remain just to supply the tiny segment of the market who absolutely demands e-ink and will pay any price to get it.
Shaggy, I and everyone else on these boards know you are just as much an iRex fanboy as any number of Apple fanboys, but the reality of the situation is that iRex, with their bumbling, incompetent management, basically just went out of business today, at least for any sort of sales here in the U.S. You think even in Europe that anyone in their right minds (unless they just have money falling out of their butt) will pay 500 euros for a DR800 now with this thing just 60 days out? Riiiiiiiiiiight.