Priorities of design
eReader devices are designed with a set of criteria in mind. Some of these are speed and battery life. It is common in portable devices to give battery life a priority. My Palm devices all seem to go a month before they devour another set of AAA batteries. I am happy about that.
Sony selected the eInk screen and slow processor speed to optimize battery life. I really enjoy the fact that I can charge my Reader and go on a long trip without carrying a charger. I think Sony made good design choices.
I do not envision a really fast eReader in the future. Reading is not a compute-intensive application. It only needs to be fast enough. I think it is.
There are multipurpose devices that are faster. Among them are the MIDs, the newer PDAs, the UMPCs and the Tablet devices. One might expect more snap from the Asus Eee, which, at $200 would make an inexpensive reader.
But if I had something else that was faster, I would still use my Sony Reader. I just would.
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