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

[Shades]

Originally Posted by 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.

What you describe would still cost more and include more features than being offered here. What you want is more to the tune of Sony's Digital Paper, which costs a grand.

I'm sure there's a market, but I'm not sure there's money to be made in it. Especially if the device is so limited that you can only transfer with Bluetooth via printing, not through USB mass storage or MTP.

[markom]

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'd like 100 $ or 200 $ 10" eink screen that can mirror tablet/netbook via wire or wirelessly with reasonably good speed.

So, no need for a lot of RAM, powerful procesor, sd card, ebook formats, touchscreen, highlighting, annotation, dictionaries, color, multitasking etc. because all that I already have in connected 8" tablet.

Maybe just with added some lightweight plastic case for easily fixing both devices (7-10 " tablets and 10" eink) next to each other.

SOL VISION 10" Pixel Qi Sunlight Readable Monitor for iPhones, iPads and other devices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLPIVIW_oTE

Wi-Fi enabled E-INK Monitor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rJm_6BOCA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWziTtlZQWc
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/e...er-2in1-device

[jscarbo]

I have absolutely no interest in an e-ink PDF reader. On the rare occasion when I need to read a PDF document, I'm perfectly content to read it on my computer monitor or my large screen tablet.

I hate the PDF format and hope to see it disappear in the near future. It's become obsolete and offers no advantage whatsoever as an ebook format. Epub and Kindle (azw. mobi, etc.) are the only ebook formats I'm interested in reading on my e-ink devices.

[jehane]

Originally Posted by Shades

What you describe would still cost more and include more features than being offered here. What you want is more to the tune of Sony's Digital Paper, which costs a grand.

I'm sure there's a market, but I'm not sure there's money to be made in it. Especially if the device is so limited that you can only transfer with Bluetooth via printing, not through USB mass storage or MTP.

The OP asked whether we would buy a large screen e-ink device that would read PDF and cost $100. Whether s/he can actually produce such a device at such a price is for them to work out. I'm pointing out that there is a market, particularly amongst academics and grad students. It may not appeal as a novel reading device (and I wouldn't use it as such) but that doesn't mean that it's not suited for other purposes. Pretty much all of the other responses only considered the novel reading audience.

[markom]

Originally Posted by jehane

The OP asked whether we would buy a large screen e-ink device that would read PDF and cost $100. Whether s/he can actually produce such a device at such a price is for them to work out. I'm pointing out that there is a market, particularly amongst academics and grad students. It may not appeal as a novel reading device (and I wouldn't use it as such) but that doesn't mean that it's not suited for other purposes. Pretty much all of the other responses only considered the novel reading audience.

Even if there was such device, its annotating capabilities (highlighting, scribbling) would still be inferior to those in tablets, so, many students would again rather use faster color tablets instead or would simultaneously be using both as they can do even now, by reading on 10" eink while using tablet for faster annotating, searching, flipping, zooming, color recognition, multitasking, better dictionaries etc. .

I guess even in two-three years time when there will hopefully be many affordable 13" eink readers around (maybe even with integrated light), it will be about the same, because there will be affordable powerfull lighweight 12" tablets around (hopefully some with reflective lcd screens like Liquavista).

[HarryHutton]

Originally Posted by jscarbo

I hate the PDF format and hope to see it disappear in the near future. It's become obsolete and offers no advantage whatsoever as an ebook format.

There are certain readers who would disagree with this point. The PDF format confers certain advantages, such as preserving a page layout as it was originally designed. For many books, such as comics, textbooks, instruction manuals, art and design books, text and diagrams are closely linked. Reflowing can result in issues.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

There are certain readers who would disagree with this point. The PDF format confers certain advantages, such as preserving a page layout as it was originally designed. For many books, such as comics, textbooks, instruction manuals, art and design books, text and diagrams are closely linked. Reflowing can result in issues.

Yes, preserving the exact image of the original page instead of only the text is needed sometimes.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

There are certain readers who would disagree with this point. The PDF format confers certain advantages, such as preserving a page layout as it was originally designed. For many books, such as comics, textbooks, instruction manuals, art and design books, text and diagrams are closely linked. Reflowing can result in issues.

I just mentioned something like this on another thread. Sorry for the redundancy.

[markom]

Originally Posted by HarryHutton

There are certain readers who would disagree with this point. The PDF format confers certain advantages, such as preserving a page layout as it was originally designed. For many books, such as comics, textbooks, instruction manuals, art and design books, text and diagrams are closely linked. Reflowing can result in issues.

Also, reflow mode in e-ink readers usually reflows text or ocr layer only, so, e.g. it's virtually useless for those who read scanned (ocr layer behind the image) scientific material that tolerate no ocr errors.

In that case, if our 6" reader is to small for pdf or its pdf capabilities are not good enough, we can use k2pdfopt's reflow mode for scanned pdfs.

k2pdfopt's reflow mode reflows image itself, retaining also pictures and tables and will usually be faster to flip through because our reader doesn't have to compute anything but just to show perfectly tailored and reflowed pdf page.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jscarbo

I hate the PDF format and hope to see it disappear in the near future. It's become obsolete and offers no advantage whatsoever as an ebook format. Epub and Kindle (azw. mobi, etc.) are the only ebook formats I'm interested in reading on my e-ink devices.

There are many good reasons to use PDF other than as an eBook format (for which, I agree, it is wholly unsuited). PDF is an excellent choice of format when it's used for its intended purpose.

[Dr. Drib]

Well, I see the OP has raised $1.00, with only $49,999 to go of the $50,000 goal.

There are five days remaining.

[uppon2]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Well, I see the OP has raised $1.00, with only $49,999 to go of the $50,000 goal.

There are five days remaining.

Close enough