If there are $100 9.7'' basic e-reader, will you buy it ?

[baicalin]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

We have to agree to disagree on that.

I'm agree that point and I know that. But there are also many need just to read through paper. doesn't it ? Because this solution is consist separated devices It could be replace step by step. If printing on paper demand is dwindle, there are no reason to buy several laser printer or extremely high spec printer which is expansive.

[Rizla]

It it runs open Android, then yeah, for sure. I'd use it as a computer monitor.

[charmian]

No, I already have a 10.1" tablet and it works ok for this. PDFs can be resource intensive and I'm not sure a $100 device where presumably a lot of the device's cost is the screen would be able to handle them well.

Considering how much similar devices cost, I would feel very skeptical of a $100 price, as well.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by baicalin

Literally, I think currently e-readers have insane price. especially in over 9.7 inch. I'm sure useless functions make device expansive. So I am preparing to make basic e reader (only can support PDF viewing ) as $100. How do you think about this ?

If such a reader could actually be produced and sold at $100, there would be a huge market among people that have to read a lot of PDFs. Most of those people would want to also be able to highlight words and write their own notes.

There are already several 9.7" readers with about 825x1200 resolution. They do cost a lot more than $100, but some of them also have the extra features that academic users need. I think at least 1200x1600 resolution would be needed.

Because these people would use it for hours per day for their job, it the device is too slow, awkward to use, or prone to crash, even $10 would be too expensive.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by baicalin

Your wrong. Although I appreciate your advice, most of your critics added later are totally nonsense,

Well, go ahead and prove me wrong, mate. I see you've raised a dollar so far, so that's only $49999 to go.

Enjoy.

[william z]

Originally Posted by baicalin

Literally, I think currently e-readers have insane price. especially in over 9.7 inch. I'm sure useless functions make device expansive. So I am preparing to make basic e reader (only can support PDF viewing ) as $100. How do you think about this ?

I doubt if an e-reader that only supports PDF files would have much of a market.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Shades

I am sorry, but this needs a lot more thought and research. Does the market even need such a device? I mean the Sony device is aimed at a particular audience: students and professionals, and I doubt they are selling very well because a tablet, either Android or iOS can already do what Sony is trying to push.

Exactly. The competition isn't Sony's eink device, it's cheap Android tablets that do a gazillion more things than this device will, for a similar price. Given that it's an indoor market near power plugs, the biggest advantages of eink aren't relevant.

Right now I could go to Amazon (if I was in the US) and drop $89 on a 9.7 inch tablet with touchscreen, video, dual cameras, 8GB storage, microSD slot, wifi, audio, etc, as well as the ability to run Android PDF-reading apps. Making a case for backers to pay $175 for a pie-in-the-sky extremely limited eink device is going to be an uphill battle even for someone with marketing skills.

ETA: I see that used Kindle DXes are selling for way less, and that's with free 3G...

[pdurrant]

I can see the attraction for businesses of a B&W printer replacement based on an E-Ink screen. Especially if the device connected to a network just like a printer - that is, it appeared to a computer just like a printer would.

But I also think it would need a display that's at least 212ppi, and preferably 300ppi, and also at least 210mm x 280mm (8 1/4 x 11) so that it can display A4 and US Letter at 100% size (allowing a little loss of displayed margin at top/bottom and (for US Letter) left/right. Otherwise it's just not good enough for proofing a document before actually printing it. (And ideally you'd have marking on the bezel to show where margins would be for A4 and US Letter.)

PDF support would be nice, for documents that you don't print directly the the device.

But I can't see this being possible for $100 in the near future. But it is certainly something I can see becoming available in the next 5-10 years, for business use at least.

[kacir]

baicalin,

I want a $100 9.7" device.
Yet, I do not want the device you are describing.

I already have one device with large screen, limited storage that is (and needs to be) in the same room with the computer. I have a monitor.

For 100USD I can put up with the need to convert everything I want to read to pdf. I can put up with a limited storage and a limited battery. But my limits are - at least 20 standard books loaded on the device and several days of reading without needing to connect the device (to load a content or charge it).

Have a look at Amazon Kindle DX. They stopped making it, because there was only a limited market.
Have a look at Sony and their 13" $1000 device
Have a good look at txtr beagle - they tried to do something very similar, just with 5" e-ink screen. It retailed for 59Eur and it took *significantly* longer to develop than you have planned.

I have been watching the e-ink technology very closely ever since I discovered that Sony has started to sell the very first e-ink reader - Sony Librié in Japan.

I have seen RobertB coming here, completely ignorant about e-ink reader, full of wonderful plans about a device the company he worked for was going to [have] built. It took *much* longer than 2 months for his company to come up with a functional reader - an OEM built generic device with a slightly customized firmware. And - mind you - the company RobertB worked for was a full-blown electronic manufacturer with lots of engineers, distribution network and a brand-name.


I do not want to discourage you. We need ambitious people trying to make what others consider impossible. This is how great stuff gets created.
I want you to pause and make a detailed plan before you end up with $50000 in your hands and no way to manufacture the promised hardware.
Sit down and write a complete use-case for your device. - A detailed description of who is going to use your device (ideally several different classes of users) Write a detailed description of all the steps a typical user in each use-case would need to perform in order to use the device. From this description you get a list of all features that your device + bluetooth dongle (that you have to include in the price of the device) + software stack for PC AND Mac AND Linux AND [perhaps] Android need.
You need to have a detailed design - not internal circuits, but a list of features, case, connectors, user control interface (buttons, touchscreen ...)


If you want to have a good campaign you need to hire some native English speaker to correct the text on your page. You even have typo in the very first word of description:

paerS
is 9.7 e-ink reader. only has blue tooth connectivity. paperS doesn't have high spec hardware but ...

it is paperS and not paerS
I know you need someone. I am not a native speaker myself.

UPDATE:
Have a look at those guys:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...id-phone/posts
They already had a successful similar product on the market.
Yet, they took much longer than 2 months to produce, and at this moment they are about 2 months behind schedule, AND they still do not have the fitcases ready to ship. Fitcase is basically only a cosmetic add-on - a holder for phone and blue-tooth equipped small screen (inkCase).

[pdurrant]

It's unclear from your project page what your development experience is. Are you part of an existing company with experience in bluetooth printing technology?

If you are, you really should be talking about this on your project pages.

If not, you need to look this up, and say what standards you intend your device to support, e.g. Basic Printing Profile and/or HCRP.

If the device is intended to have a USB port, it would be brilliant to also support printing over USB, perhaps by emulating a postscript printer (since you're going to have most of a postscript interpreter anyway in the PDF display software). (Although also supporting a mass storage device mode would be good, to allow PDFs to be copied to the device.)

But for a printer replacement for proofing purposes, I really think you're going to need to think bigger than 9.7. Also, the glass substrate of an E-Ink screen of 9.7 and above is quite fragile (6" ones are bad enough). For a robust device for office use you really need to be looking as a non-glass substrate for the E-Ink display.

I think you've launched your fund-raiser too early. You need much more definite plans, and preferably some half-working prototypes.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But for a printer replacement for proofing purposes, I really think you're going to need to think bigger than 9.7.

Now that is a good idea that did not occur to me at first. To not really replace your main printer, but only supplement it for test purposes to save paper. Wouldn't it also be important to have the ability to calibrate the screen exactly? Otherwise it would be no different than "proofing" on a computer screen. I don't believe that print-proofing was part of the original idea.

[baicalin]

I will post some detail.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Now that is a good idea that did not occur to me at first. To not really replace your main printer, but only supplement it for test purposes to save paper. Wouldn't it also be important to have the ability to calibrate the screen exactly? Otherwise it would be no different than "proofing" on a computer screen. I don't believe that print-proofing was part of the original idea.

calibration of the screen would be automatic - the screen is a known resolution and size, so making it display at 100% is easy. Hmm... you could even have it offer different (e.g. A3 or Tabloid) page sizes and 'scroll' the page, if it was really clever. But really, for most office work very-nearly A4 or US Letter would do, so long as the margins were properly indicated.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

calibration of the screen would be automatic - the screen is a known resolution and size, so making it display at 100% is easy. Hmm... you could even have it offer different (e.g. A3 or Tabloid) page sizes and 'scroll' the page, if it was really clever. But really, for most office work very-nearly A4 or US Letter would do, so long as the margins were properly indicated.

Ah thanks for that explanation. I was overthinking it a little bit - for some reason I thought that being off by 1/100th mm or less can cause issues in a few rare cases. But I suppose if you need to be that accurate, you would print-proof on the real deal anyway to be absolutely sure.

[jehane]

I think that there *is* a market for such a device. It seems that many of you are looking at it in terms of reading novels or other plain text work. However I would pay $100 for an e-ink device that is good for reading academic papers, especially those with graphs and equations. The ones I read are all in pdf. I am still printing those out or reading them on my laptop since I haven't found my 10.1" tablet a good reading experience (due to aspect ratio). If you look through this forum you'll see plenty of people looking for something like this.

I can also see a need from companies who want to issue electronic document readers to staff, but don't want them to have the added functionality of tablets (games...). I recall a few queries along these lines in the past as well.

What I would look for in such a device:
1. Size and aspect ratio appropriate to display A4 and US Letter at 100%.
2. Good resolution - I can't suggest a figure but journal print can be quite small and it needs to be at least as clear as printing on paper.
3. Light weight
4. Long battery life

Possibly also:
5. SD card slot - for easy storage and transfer of documents.
6. Wi-fi - with basic browser to allow downloading of journal articles.
7. If you want a broader market, ensure foreign language (character) support. Most international journals are in English, but there are plenty of documents that won't be.

I do agree that you need a clear business plan and some evidence that you are capable of actually completing this project. People aren't going to give you money without some assurance that you can deliver.