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Originally Posted by radleyp
As DMcCunney notes, here we talk to the converted, so we take as obvious what is clearly not obvious to the non-ereading public. My brother is a unix expert who spends most of every day in front of three on-all-day-and-night computers, and he would not think of reading an ebook (and never has), though he does read news on the web. I have never been able to convince him that ebooks have certain advantages. And when he hears that people like many of you spend $350 for a reading device, he thinks you are crazy. The very idea of having to charge some device to be able to read seems to him insane. If I can't get him to try ebooks, what chance will I have with the non-computer-literate?
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<chuckle>.
I'm a *nix admin. One of the things that got
me into ebooks was the prospect of a device in my pocket with searchable electronic versions of the big, fat, heavy manuals I had at my desk. Since the vast majority of stuff I needed to refer to was in HTML or PDF format, and I could convert the first and read the second directly on my device...
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Folks, we are trying to get people to ABANDON the normal book: this is a battle we cannot win at present. Books have been around too long and done just fine, thank you. Moreover, the Sony reader is far from an intelligent device: it's good only for reading a limited number of texts, and it does not do obvious things, as pointed out by NatCh. A better device would help, especially one that displayed in color.
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Personally, I'm
not trying to make normal books go away. I see ebooks as an
additional format, not a replacement.
And with all due respect to those here who own them, I largely agree with your brother about dedicated readers. They simply don't do
enough to justify the money I would spend on them.
My current device is PIM, MP3 player, multimedia viewer, programming tool, and games device as well as ebook reader, with Wifi and Bluetooth conectivity, two SD card slots, on-board stereo and a few other features, including a full color display. It fits in a pocket. It cost me about two thirds of what a Sony Reader goes for, and that
only does ebooks.
The advantage the Sony Reader has is a larger and more easily legible display.
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Frankly I am sometimes embarrassed to pull out my Q to read, people look at me as if I am weird. That sense must disappear before ebooks go anywhere.
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I haven't had that problem. I
have had people looking on in fascination when I pull out my folding keyboard and start writing on my device.
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And I agree with McCunney that price is critical.
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Right now we are in early adopter stage. Early adopters expect to pay more. If production volumes ramp up enough, I expect prices to drop: it's the nature of the electronics industry. I just don't expect to see it soon.
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Dennis