MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What makes e-book readers expensive?

THJahar · 01-20-2007, 01:03 AM

I think cost recupement is whats currently keeping the price high. I keep on looking at the market and say to myself will eink readers ever go away? (Which is what a lot of the naysayers are intimating) Frankly no. Whilst it may not become a ubiquitious device, I would hazard a guess that large percentage of individuals who buy more than 5 books per year would be interested in the device. People are not comfortable with the idea of downloading books, rather than buying them, but this is the same unease a lot of people would have felt if you mentioned in the pre-mp3 days of downloading from iTunes, before it became a reality.
Whilst the Sony is a good start, I think the turning point will be the Kindle, if it succeeds, I would no doubt be expecting eink readers to be within the $50 dollar range within 5 years time. (If you think thats too steep a drop compare that with the price of DVD players and LCD panels when they first came out)

01-20-2007, 01:03 AM	#10
THJahar Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 58 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Leicester, UK Device: Jinke V2 Prototype	I think cost recupement is whats currently keeping the price high. I keep on looking at the market and say to myself will eink readers ever go away? (Which is what a lot of the naysayers are intimating) Frankly no. Whilst it may not become a ubiquitious device, I would hazard a guess that large percentage of individuals who buy more than 5 books per year would be interested in the device. People are not comfortable with the idea of downloading books, rather than buying them, but this is the same unease a lot of people would have felt if you mentioned in the pre-mp3 days of downloading from iTunes, before it became a reality. Whilst the Sony is a good start, I think the turning point will be the Kindle, if it succeeds, I would no doubt be expecting eink readers to be within the $50 dollar range within 5 years time. (If you think thats too steep a drop compare that with the price of DVD players and LCD panels when they first came out)