Quote:
Originally Posted by latepaul
This might be an odd thing to say for someone who owns seven eink devices, but as long as ebooks are still available I'm less concerned about dedicated ereaders. The best thing about my Kindles/Kobos is the battery life. The eink is nice but I'll happily read off my PC monitor or tablet screen. (In fact I probably read on my PC more than any other device). I almost never read outside.
And I've been saying for a few years that ereaders will eventually go away anyway. That's not based on declining popularity, that's based on the belief that at some point they'll figure out a screen technology that has the advantages of both eink and lcd and we'll just have tablets and phones. They only reason we have dedicated reading devices is that eink is good for reading but not a lot else.
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For some reason certain people don't like single use devices – I'm talking specifically about those critics who have been saying "eInk devices are dead" for the last five years. Usually their argument centers around the argument that there's "no real need for a device that can just be used for reading – after all, smartphones and tablets can do that and so much more." They try to argue that LCD screens are fine and imply that those who don't think so are cranks just imagining that they have issues with these screens.
This newest article is just more of the same.
Here's why I like eReaders. Long battery life (as you mentioned). Easy on the eyes. Light, easy to carry and hold (probably one of the biggest reasons). And, ironically considering the article writer's arguments, because an eReader
is a one use device – no distractions. I sometimes read on my Blackberry Q10 (if I'm stuck waiting somewhere) but I never read on my tablet – which is currently sitting in a drawer because I got tired of keeping it charged (the tablet is too heavy and the LCD screen is uncomfortable and I don't really have any use for one). I don't read books on a PC (I sometimes fire up Calibre to highlight a quote I want to use).
I don't see eReaders going away. They're a niche market, but it's a pretty big niche. And, according to the article, it appears Amazon (at least) understands that many (probably a majority) of the heavy readers prefer eReaders.