What will e-readers be like 10 years from now?

[Dr. Drib]

I think many would argue that the iPad killed the Kindle DX.

[janrey]

Originally Posted by Braid

Hi folks,

I've got lots of e-readers, and I love them all. I am very pleased that Kindle are pushing in the direction of physical buttons. I hope we are entering a post-touch-screen phase in the tech world. I like that Kobo are paying attention to the colour of light on their devices - with the popularity of apps like flux and operating systems having similar functions integrated as standard, I am sure warmer colour temperatures will be something coming as standard on most e-readers.

What do you think e-readers will be like ten years from now?

Colour screens are an obvious way forward. Do you think this will take off?

Will e-ink continue to dominate? Will it develop to offer quicker response times, thereby allowing PDF documents to be read more conveniently?

What other possible developments are there that may or may not happen?

Do you think e-readers will be influenced by the emerging 'smart home' or 'internet of things' trend in the tech world?

I too like physical buttons vs. touch screen but because of the light factor I have a Voyage and have somewhat retired my Kindle 3. I would like a larger kindle, but still light weight and not heavy like a tablet. The screen size of my ipad is nice to read from but the thing is so heavy that my wrist is starting to get tablet syndrome. I don't read comics so color screens aren't important to me but it might be for others.

On the books scale I would like to see the price of a kindle book to be half of what the price of a paperback book is. With a kindle book you don't have the option of lending it around or even reselling it like you do a paperback and you don't have the cost of paper and printing so I do think that they should be substantially cheaper.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by janrey

I too like physical buttons vs. touch screen but because of the light factor I have a Voyage and have somewhat retired my Kindle 3. I would like a larger kindle, but still light weight and not heavy like a tablet. The screen size of my ipad is nice to read from but the thing is so heavy that my wrist is starting to get tablet syndrome. I don't read comics so color screens aren't important to me but it might be for others.

Have you looked at the Oasis v2? It is lightweight, has a larger screen than the others and has buttons.

On the books scale I would like to see the price of a kindle book to be half of what the price of a paperback book is. With a kindle book you don't have the option of lending it around or even reselling it like you do a paperback and you don't have the cost of paper and printing so I do think that they should be substantially cheaper.

That topic has been done to death. though I predict this thread could be derailed for three pages talking about the 'fairness' of ebook prices.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by dwig

Predicting the future is impossible. No one knows what will actually exist in 10 years.

Back in the late 1960's when I was working as a mainframe programmer when we had a long wait for a program test we'd sit around and discuss the future of computers. Our predictions got pretty wild; a couple of guys even predicted computers might have screens someday. The rest of us realized how useless screens would be and ignored that.

We did come up with some really fanciful scenarios though. We were a pretty imaginative group. But we didn't even come close to what actually happened!

Even those silly guys predicting that computers would someday have screens would have laughed at the idea of the phone I have in my pocket right now, which is hundreds of times faster than our huge mainframe computer, with thousands of times it's capacity, that.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Conan46

What about when tablet's have virtual keyboards that are like touching the air? I actually think the tablet may outlive the laptop. Chromebooks are already merging Android into them, and are supplanting Windows in schools and other areas. Only in the office and a few professions does anyone need powerful laptops or desktops. There will be some merging to be sure. But mobile systems are on the upswing, even Apple seems to be neglecting the laptop/desktop space. Mobile devices will keep improving.

Chromebooks are laptops.

Barry

[Richwood]

It has been 12 years since the original Sony e-ink ebook reader and while the screen has increased in resolution and illumination is now common the format has changed very little. Improvements in the operating system, addition of touch screens and added fonts and font sizes have happened but the basic hardware is unchanged so far. Any huge changes coming? IMO dependent on what display technology develops. Love to see a display as high contrast in sunlight as e-ink but in color. Put that on a smart phone or tablet and it might displace the e-reader.

To me though one major disadvantage of the smart phone is the ridiculous prices they are going for. A $1000 iPhone is to me highway robbery as I bet actual manufacturing cost is in the $50 or so range for direct parts and labor.

[janrey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Have you looked at the Oasis v2? It is lightweight, has a larger screen than the others and has buttons.



That topic has been done to death. though I predict this thread could be derailed for three pages talking about the 'fairness' of ebook prices.

Yeah, I looked at the Oasis but I had just gotten the Voyage and it is still not the size I am looking for in an ereader. I want it to be more of the larger paperbacks not the mass market ones which are smaller.

Yeah I know, been talked about to death. .

[janrey]

Originally Posted by barryem

Back in the late 1960's when I was working as a mainframe programmer when we had a long wait for a program test we'd sit around and discuss the future of computers. Our predictions got pretty wild; a couple of guys even predicted computers might have screens someday. The rest of us realized how useless screens would be and ignored that.

We did come up with some really fanciful scenarios though. We were a pretty imaginative group. But we didn't even come close to what actually happened!

Even those silly guys predicting that computers would someday have screens would have laughed at the idea of the phone I have in my pocket right now, which is hundreds of times faster than our huge mainframe computer, with thousands of times it's capacity, that.

Barry

Yep, I worked for an engineering firm and at one point I was typing in the code on punch cards for the engineers because they had so much work to do trying to make a deadline and I pondered why I couldn't type it directly into the computer ala a desktop machine because the cards were so tedious not to mention you would drop them.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Richwood

It has been 12 years since the original Sony e-ink ebook reader and while the screen has increased in resolution and illumination is now common the format has changed very little. ...

... and that Sony's format was no different than that of the PDAs that had been around for a decade.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by dwig

... and that Sony's format was no different than that of the PDAs that had been around for a decade.

Wow, that's right, I had almost forgotten.

Ah, the joys of reading a .pdb or .prc on a Palm.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Richwood

To me though one major disadvantage of the smart phone is the ridiculous prices they are going for. A $1000 iPhone is to me highway robbery as I bet actual manufacturing cost is in the $50 or so range for direct parts and labor.

I have no idea what the manufacturing cost of an Iphone is but it's probably the development cost of any bleeding edge phone as well as support costs and marketing costs and manufacturing costs that makes the price so high.

And you can buy a perfectly good phone these days, one that's as good as an Iphone for reading, for a small fraction of the Iphone's price.

Barry

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have no idea what the manufacturing cost of an Iphone is but it's probably the development cost of any bleeding edge phone as well as support costs and marketing costs and manufacturing costs that makes the price so high...

The organizations that analyze costs for business intelligence (such as IHS Markit) all seem to come up with around about 1/3 of the full retail price for parts cost alone for iPhones. Someone in a post suggested (dreamed?) $50 , the same sources quote a considerably higher price than that to Apple just for the iPhone X's screen alone.

Of course assembly, R&D, packaging, transport, marketing, etc. are on top. That said it is also claimed that Apple's margins are high compared to those of other phone manufacturers - I often wonder if that means that for phones of same retail price, the non Apple phone has higher quality components or just suffer higher component costs due to smaller volumes.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

The organizations that analyze costs for business intelligence (such as IHS Markit) all seem to come up with around about 1/3 of the full retail price for parts cost alone for iPhones. Someone in a post suggested (dreamed?) $50 , the same sources quote a considerably higher price than that to Apple just for the iPhone X's screen alone.

Of course assembly, R&D, packaging, transport, marketing, etc. are on top. That said it is also claimed that Apple's margins are high compared to those of other phone manufacturers - I often wonder if that means that for phones of same retail price, the non Apple phone has higher quality components or just suffer higher component costs due to smaller volumes.

Hubby’s Samsung tablet has $150 screen. We discovered that when we took it to be repaired. No we didn't replace it.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by Braid

Hi folks,

Will e-ink continue to dominate? Will it develop to offer quicker response times, thereby allowing PDF documents to be read more conveniently?

My jetBook Lite has handled PDFs well since ca. 2010. Of course, it is not eInk.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Richwood

To me though one major disadvantage of the smart phone is the ridiculous prices they are going for. A $1000 iPhone is to me highway robbery as I bet actual manufacturing cost is in the $50 or so range for direct parts and labor.

The numbers I've seen quoted for the iPhone X is ~$338 to ~367 US for manufacturing not counting any R&D, distribution, software development, advertising, etc. costs. Still room in there for a very healthy profit margin.

Near as I can tell, the process is to take the cost of the parts when buying in large volumes and add them all up with a bugger factor for the manufacturing costs. The iPhone X screen is alone is close to $100.