Is the ereader dead?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Richwood

One of the reasons I like the USB battery packs. A 5000 mAh to 10,000 mAh USB battery pack is small enough to fit any pocket or purse and can recharge a Kindle reader multiple times.

because I use navigation on my phone, which draws a lot of power, I lug around an Anker with 20K mAh capacity. It can recharge my Moto G5 5 to 6 times. Navigation depletes the phone in about an hour, in summer with the screen at full brightness. The Anker supplies an additional 5-6 hours, if need be.

If I need to, I can also recharge the KA1, obviously.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Richwood

One of the reasons I like the USB battery packs. A 5000 mAh to 10,000 mAh USB battery pack is small enough to fit any pocket or purse and can recharge a Kindle reader multiple times.

I keep a mophie charger in my work backpack. It keeps it's charge for months at a time. It's probably a bit heavy for a backpacking trip, but works quite well for a car camp.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

People *choose* to read less. There is no obligation to either use social media or watch TV. I don't; I have no social media accounts, and I only use my TV for watching Blu-Ray movies and to see the image from the dedicated music computer connected to the audio system.

This is true. I read more, but I choose not to do social media or watch much TV.

My husband is amazed at how many books I read, and often refers to himself as a slow reader, but as far as I can tell, he reads at a perfectly normal pace, it's just that he spends a lot more time browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, playing games on his tablet, checking out sports and watching TV than I do.

Most of his reading is right before bed, I fit it in wherever I can.

Sent from my Pixel C using Tapatalk

[radius]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

because I use navigation on my phone, which draws a lot of power, I lug around an Anker with 20K mAh capacity. It can recharge my Moto G5 5 to 6 times. Navigation depletes the phone in about an hour, in summer with the screen at full brightness. The Anker supplies an additional 5-6 hours, if need be.

I assume this navigation is done inside the car? Does the phone draw so much power that even your car's usb port or accessory port/cigarette lighter can't keep up? Yikes!

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by radius

I assume this navigation is done inside the car? Does the phone draw so much power that even your car's usb port or accessory port/cigarette lighter can't keep up? Yikes!

Not necessarily. Could be backpacking or camping.

[Perry R]

I use my e-reader for my tens of thousand pages of PDF documents and couldn't even imagine storing and reading them any differently.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Not necessarily. Could be backpacking or camping.

That is more likely. In a car you seldom need to turn the screen up all the way. Plus most of the time while driving it is not necessary to see the screen, voice commands should suffice.

[SteveEisenberg]

The eInk eReader isn't dead, but what is, for me, the killer app will be gone shortly. This came in email early this morning:

Hello from Amazon.com,

We wanted to let you know that “The New York Times – Latest News blog” will no longer be available as of June 1st, 2018. You’ll receive an automated confirmation of the cancellation when it occurs. Any issues of this blog already on your Kindle device will not be affected.

If you have enjoyed reading this title, you can subscribe to The New York Times – Daily Edition for Kindle by going to: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GFK7L6.

Yes I can. Old monthly price for most of the paper that interests me: $1.99. New price for whole paper: $19.99.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I could also be true that, though fewer eInk eReaders have sold, the reading on eInk eReaders has not declined. In other words, there are fewer people buying new eInk eReaders but those who do buy them, also do a LOT of reading and book buying using them -- nothing in the article would counter that. We also know that tablet sales have dropped, does that mean fewer people are using tablets?

I think what you are describing is the idea of saturation. Not everyone will buy a given product for a variety of reasons, and as a given product lasts for several yrs (barring accidents such as dropped ereaders) people don't fix something that doesn't need fixing. So it seems like the tech is declining because it conforms to (I imagine) some math formula or other. I imagine that when the T.V. set first came out it followed a similar curve. I.e. Too expensive for many, then the price slowly began to drop and more people bought them, then the sets lasted for several yrs so people didn't buy a new one as they had one that worked just fine. And there were probably those who didn't want one. I understand my paternal grandma asked my grandfather why he bought their 1st set back in the 1950's. She probably wasn't the only one. No doubt future tech will also follow that same pattern.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by crich70

She probably wasn't the only one. No doubt future tech will also follow that same pattern.

Yup, that's the S-Curve or 'logistic function'

[QuantumIguana]

Only 19 percent of U.S. adults owned an e-reader in 2015, and the numbers didn't vary much by sex, location or age. Twenty-seven percent of affluent individuals surveyed owned an e-reader, and they were the most enthusiastic buyers by far. Compare and contrast: 68 percent of U.S. adults owned a smartphone in the same year, and 87 percent of affluent individuals did, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Most business owners would be dancing in the streets if they had a product that was owned by 19% or the public and 27% of affluent individuals. It's true that a considerably larger number of people own cell phones, but that's pretty much irrelevant. It doesn't really matter that fewer people want a dedicated e-reader, what matters is whether or not the share of the market that wants a dedicated e-reader is large enough to merit producing them. Only about 4% of cars in the US are manual transmissions, but that's still a large enough market to be worth targeting.

E-readers do have advantages. Battery life is a huge one. With a tablet, I need to plug it in each day. An e-reader, I can go for days. I prefer reading from e-ink than from an LCD tablet. (I'm still using a Kindle Keyboard) I'll read on my phone only if I have neither an e-reader or a tablet. Of course, not everyone shares my preferences, and that's fine. But there's enough of the market that does so that e-readers are probably going to stick around for a while. If they were really dying, I would think Amazon would stop producing new models.

[leebase]

I think the only tragedy for eInk fans is Amazon becoming effectively a monopoly. There was a time when buying an eInk reader didn't lock you into the books from the device company.

But, as was true of Standard Oil - monopolies can be a good think and certainly do not unfailingly lead to higher prices. Amazon is a good steward of both it's eInk devices and it's Kindle book store.

What is SUPER helpful for eInk affectianado's is that so many other people enjoy reading ebooks on tablets and smartphones. There is no longer any doubt that a new title will come out in ebook form.

I think the market for ebooks themselves is quite healthy....given my earlier comment that monopolies are not always terrible (unless YOU are someone trying to compete with them)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by leebase

I think the only tragedy for eInk fans is Amazon becoming effectively a monopoly. There was a time when buying an eInk reader didn't lock you into the books from the device company.

But, as was true of Standard Oil - monopolies can be a good think and certainly do not unfailingly lead to higher prices. Amazon is a good steward of both it's eInk devices and it's Kindle book store.

What is SUPER helpful for eInk affectianado's is that so many other people enjoy reading ebooks on tablets and smartphones. There is no longer any doubt that a new title will come out in ebook form.

I think the market for ebooks themselves is quite healthy....given my earlier comment that monopolies are not always terrible (unless YOU are someone trying to compete with them)

good points.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

I was thinking the other day there should be an eink tablet available which also allows people to listen to audiobooks. People spend more time listening to audiobooks on devices other than ereaders and having the option to use the same device to read would be a plus. I know the kindle fire already does this but some people prefer eInk due to less stress on the eyes, ability to read outdoors, etc.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

I was thinking the other day there should be an eink tablet available which also allows people to listen to audiobooks. People spend more time listening to audiobooks on devices other than ereaders and having the option to use the same device to read would be a plus. I know the kindle fire already does this but some people prefer eInk due to less stress on the eyes, ability to read outdoors, etc.

I think adding audiobook support to ereaders (should have fairly minimal impact on battery and cost) makes more sense than making e-ink tablets. Due to the slow refresh rate, e-ink would make poor general purpose tablets. Ideal configuration would be something like the YotaPhone but I somehow doubt demand for e-ink+LCD tablets is large enough to warrant development costs.