|
This is getting pretty free-form, so here goes: I think it's all about colour, and pictures. Until e-readers do this, the market will be limited.
It's also about reading; I have a really nice laptop, thank you very much, but I don't use it very much for reading text, because you've got to sit in front of it, or prop it up somehow, etc. I do curl up on the sofa with my e-reader. In some ways it's better than a book, by being easier to physically hold onto. Yes it's a slightly different experience but who cares. In contrast to an iPad or similar, the e-reader has a book's passivity and, praise God, mine is so dumb it can't connect to the internet. I would not do this with an iPad, period. (Anyone remember how in Calvin and Hobbes a television set would always be pictured as if it were jumping about and emitting terrible sparks? That's your iPad.)
Oh, the other thing is contrast. In spite of what's said, the background on eInk is grey, not white. Fix that, too, and you're way ahead. If it really, really looked like paper -- that would help for sure.
But as long as people want something really zingy, that glows and does bright colours, and connects you to the internet for streaming UFC when you're tired of trying to figure out Derrida, the eInk e-reader is going to have a limited market. Sad; I'm so sick of the iPad hype.
|