[kilron]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

I think that perhaps we should remember that this is MobilRead - the majority of participants are readers of text - that is, books. E-ink is the proven display for ebook readers because of its similarity to black ink on white paper, and is ideal for extended reading.

"proven" by whom exactly? popular consensus? i'm still waiting to read a study that says that reading a high quality e-ink screen is noticably "better" for your eyes than reading a high quality LCD screen. i look at an lcd screen for hours on end and my eyes feel the same way as when i read a book for hours. personally, i've always thought its the other things that matter more: easy-to-read type, proper lighting and contrast, etc...

There are a few ebook readers I've seen advertised on the net that use traditional computer displays, but none have caught on with the majority of those that read ebooks extensively.

you're making an assumption here that they haven't caught on because they're not as good. what makes you so sure it isn't other factors? i'm not saying it isn't, i'm just saying you can't reasonable conclude the assumptions your making without further proof.

i've asked this question in the past and no one has given me a reasonable answer to tell me its wrong. i've always thought the primary reasoning for e-ink displays was not its readability, but rather its battery life and supposedly cost. but they're too expensive any way you cut it right now. but the question is this: if amazon and b&n and sony could all produce dedicated eBook Readers that had color backlit LCD screens and the screens cost exactly the same amount as e-ink and had the exact same battery life, do you really think they would stick with e-ink? i think they wouldn't.

The ipad doesn't have a display similar to e-ink so I doubt if it has any chance of converting dedicated ebook readers from their e-ink display devices to the ipad.

again, an assumption based on speculation and non-facts. i think we have no idea at this point if it will convert dedicated ebook readers from their e-ink display devices. why? because none of us have actually tried it yet!

but that brings me to a second point: do you think apple really cares if they convert anyone? the dedicated ebook reader marked is so so small that i honestly don't think they care. they care about everybody else, which is to say, they care about the overwhelmingly vast majority of the population that occasionally reads but has never been interested in an eBook reading device (probably because they're too expensive for being single purpose devices).

For tunes, photos, perhaps video, yes it looks ok, but of course there are traditional tablets or the upcoming slates with full computer os that will complete for that market. After all, the ipad is a tablet even though one with a phone os.

you're selling something short that you've never seen in person. and there have been slates and traditional tablets out for years. have they ever caught on? nope. and there's still no proof that a tablet/slate with a full blown OS is something that anyone wants. they've never sold in the past, why would that be any different now?

IMO, you're looking at it the wrong way. please don't take this personally, but i think you don't quite "get it" (trust me, you're not alone, its not a dig, just different way of thinking). you're calling it a tablet with a phone OS, and that just sounds like you're trying to put it down which is pointless. what part of the iPad or its operating system looks "phone-like" to you? another pundit put it this way and i think it explains it well. don't think of the iPad as a super-sized iPod touch or super-sized iPhone - rather think of the iPod touch or iPhone as a shrunken-down iPad. if you look at it like that, it makes much more sense. the iPad is really the master device that can do so so much more and the iPod touch and iPhone are smaller, more limited devices due to their size constraints, etc.. the point is that even though though the iPod touch and iPhone came first, the iPad was really the device that the OS was designed for in the first place. think of the iPod touch as a mini-tablet and the iPhone as a mini-tablet with a phone app built in. to me it makes much more sense that way.

the iPad will most definitely be a very very popular eBook reader. it could very easily become one of the most popular eBook readers. the iPad opens up the eBook reader market for the enormous number of people that don't already own a dedicated ebook reader. so the average person who has an iPad and reads books on them, they probably won't read as many books as the average person who owns a kindle, but that doesn't the iPad any less of an eBook reading device.