Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
The very definition of a cellphone. (With a protective case, probably). If you have one of those, you don't need a dedicated reader... something millions of people have already discovered, especially in Asia. And even if you did break it, cellphones are (usually) easily replaced, and hopefully you were smart enough to keep file backups.
Dedicated readers are, let's face it, luxury items right now, and for simply reading text, barely worth the cost and trouble. Multi-use devices are more economical, and preferred by most of the world for their utility. If you already have a multi-use device that is ebook capable, you've just removed the cost of a dedicated reader from your budget.
Point is, ebooks are already cheap to buy... especially when you consider the real costs of paper books that you will pay for later, for instance, your taxes that will go to managing landfills and cleaning the polluted air and streams from pulp manufacturing and transportation. Add convenience to the low cost, and you have a win-win that will steadily convert more readers to digital.
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True, cell phones can meet that need but the cell phone I have strictly makes and receives phone calls...when I turn it on. I'm from a generation that grew up not needing to be connected at the hip (lip?) with someone 24/7 (I also just don't really like talking on the phone because of my ADD; I have to have more than one form of input to be able to properly process it, such as watching body language while listening, otherwise it's exhausting). The only reason I got the one I have is I often drive long distances and it is handy to have just in case. The rest of the time I don't need it (can't afford a plan with internet access) so I just have a very basic phone (the old Oyster) and a prepaid plan (it's actually more cost effective for me than a monthly plan) that rolls over every month ( I typically won't use it for two or three months then use it a bunch for a week or two). I've arranged to have the provider automatically top up for me as needed so I don't even have to think about it. I've had the phone three or four years so I'm happy with the arrangement.
I agree multiuse devices make more sense, most of the time. A phone wouldn't be suitable since the vast majority of my e-books are going to be scanned pdfs without being OCRed (too time consuming) and will need to be viewd at least the full width of the scanned page. I bought my first netbook with the idea of using it as a reader but found battery life was too limiting and even waking up from hibernation just took too long. It's also heavier than a reader. I love netbooks because they are really handy when traveling and make good backup computers for accessing the internet if my main computer goes down but they make lousy e-book readers.
I've been waiting for the readers to improve and come down in price. I recently ordered a 6" Astak that NewEgg knocked $150 off the normal price so I'll see how that works out (if not, I'll send it back and keep waiting).
For now (note I said "for now"), I'm finding buying paper books and scanning them is more economical and since I buy used whenever I can, I'm not really impacting the environment since the books are already in existance and headed for the landfills eventually anyway. Eventually, buying e-books directly will be more economical (I'll buy them now if I can get them DRM free; I refuse to subsidize the bastards who sell books with it nor let them force me to be a criminal by buying them and stripping the DRM).